


Blood Magic

by Amilia_Farem



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Witchcraft, Angst, Curses, Family Feels, Fluff, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Minor Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rated T for swearing, Witch Hunters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:01:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 30
Words: 64,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28148781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amilia_Farem/pseuds/Amilia_Farem
Summary: "There is no evil in sorcery, only in the hearts of men"- MerlinThe Earth whispers about power and beauty in Tommy's ears. He pretends not to listen because he knows what his family would do if they found out. But Nature is nothing if not persistent.
Comments: 812
Kudos: 1263





	1. Bees?

Tommy didn’t think he was in the wrong. Wilbur was being a dick, and that vase was old and ugly anyway. He probably should have toned down the strength a little bit, but he honestly thought that window was far sturdier. It would’ve been better if Phil actually yelled at him instead of standing in the doorway all silent and judging as he does. The man just sighed, said “you’re repairing that on your own on the weekend, I’m not dealing with this shit” and walked out. All the kids at least got yelled at by their parents – did he not deserve even that much attention? 

Tommy knew very well that he didn’t have friends: he wasn't always the adopted son of Philza, one of the most famous and strong witch hunters in the area. Everyone still remembers him as “the dirty raccoon” from 6 years ago, a barefoot kid running around town, stealing fruits from the market and sleeping under the old bridge. He didn’t think all the kids would immediately love him after Phil found him on the streets and let the boy stay at his house. People often told him they found his constant chatter annoying, that he was too loud and all over the place. Phil said they were just being assholes and that such a great kid like himself would certainly find some amazing friends. Tommy believed him for a year or so, but he wasn’t blind: he saw Phil massage his temples after a particularly long rant about the boy’s school day, saw Techno roll his eyes at his rambles and chuckle about something Will whispered to him when they thought Tommy wasn’t watching. Being the odd one out sucked, so Wilbur mocking him today wasn’t something Tommy could control himself about.

Thankfully it was the middle of summer, so he didn’t worry about freezing his feet off walking down the forest path without his shoes on. The sun shone brightly in the sky as Tommy made his way deeper into the forest, stumbling over the roots and fallen branches and whispering curses to himself. 

"You spent only 6 years with us and expect to be treated like a person? Oh well, too fucking bad, should’ve been born into the family and not an annoying little shit who can’t even make friends.” 

He didn’t watch where he was stepping, so the sharp pain in his foot made him yelp and fall in alarm. There was something stuck in his heel and a bug lying in the grass right next to him. He looked closer at it and sighed in relief.

"Just a bee, thank god”, he said and brought the foot to his face to try and get the stinger out. At this moment a branch broke right next to Tommy and he looked in the direction of the noise. There he saw a boy looking about his age, wearing a simple short-sleeved brown vest and pants with grass stains all over them. The stranger had a flower crown on his head, and... were those bees in it?

"Oh no, you killed it!” the strange boy cried in alarm and picked up the unmoving insect. He cradled it in his hand and petted it with one finger, looking absolutely devastated. A portion of bees (yes, those were definitely bees) flew out of the stranger’s crown and started circling around their fallen brother.

"What the hell? It shouldn’t have fucking stung me if it wanted to live and shit”, said Tommy defensively. What else was he going to ruin today? Burn a house down? He already had enough trouble as it was, the boy didn’t need to worry about a dead bee.

The bees started buzzing angrily and the weird boy said “I’m sure he doesn’t mean it, guys. Surely not. Right?”

He looked at Tommy expectantly, and for some reason he felt the need to stutter out “Of… of course not. That was an accident, I’m very sorry”. Tommy let out a nervous chuckle, surprised at his own sheepishness. Bees didn’t speak human, it didn’t matter if he apologized to them, if they wanted revenge they would get it.  
But then the boy in front of him nodded his head, satisfied, and the insects almost immediately flew back and disappeared in the flowers. He put the bee in one of his many pockets and moved closer to Tommy. 

"Here, I'll help you"

The boy took the stinger out with one precise movement and immediately covered the sting mark with some gel he took out of a small jar in his other pocket. It happened so fast Tommy didn't have time to protest. He almost started to ask what that stuff was, but the stranger was quicker.

"It's a healing balm, just some lavender, calendula and other plants of the sort, nothing extreme. I'm Tubbo, by the way"

The boy, Tubbo, smiled, stood up from the ground and reached out his hand towards him. Tommy grabbed it and carefully got to his feet.

"I’m Tommy, but you can call me Big T. No, your name also starts with a T, that'd be awkward."

Tubbo laughed like he understood the joke, which was odd but pleasant nevertheless. Tommy personally thought he was very funny, but his sense of humor was rarely appreciated by anyone. The boy took the dead bee out of the pocket he put it in and said, “We need to have a funeral”. 

# # # # #

So that's how Tommy found himself on a forest clearing, digging a little hole to bury a bee that stung him minutes ago, talking to the boy he just met, and… actually having a good time. It was nice talking to someone who wasn’t his horrible peers or “family”. It seemed Tubbo didn’t know who he was or at least pretended not to, but it was a pleasant conversation either way. Turned out Tubbo was also sixteen but older than Tommy by a few months, which was an unpleasant surprise since he was already the youngest at home, but the boy got over it pretty quickly. His new acquaintance was an apprentice at the local apothecary, which explained him having a healing plant balm on his person for no reason. Tubbo bragged about making it himself and Tommy answered that it wasn’t that impressive, but secretly he thought it was actually really great, because the small wound already hurt a lot less, so the other boy definitely knew what he was doing. After the bee was put on a leaf and lowered into its impromptu grave, Tubbo made a speech with all the bees circling around him:

"Everybee life is precious, and the loss of one is a reason to feel upset and distraught. But there’s a lot of work ahead of us, so we should get to it in order to honor our fallen friend.”

The bees flew around some more and then moved deeper into the forest and disappeared behind the trees, with Tubbo waving them goodbye.

"Are you some kind of a bug whisperer?” asked Tommy, still a bit unnerved.

Tubbo smiled crookedly and rubbed the back of his neck.

"No, I just really like bees!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! This is my first work in this fandom that's going to be longer than 800 words. English isn't my first language, so if something seems wack about the language - that's probably why. If you want to maybe help me proofread, scream with me about sbi/mcyt, or just say hi - my tumblr is t0tallyspine. Have a nice day :)
> 
> P.S. That's the most I've ever written the word "bee" in my life.


	2. The Hunter Family

It wasn’t that Tommy didn’t like his adoptive brothers and father. He was and will always be grateful for the way they accepted him into their home, helped him learn many things about life and being a good person, and Phil never pressuring him into anything he wasn’t comfortable with. He just felt… left out sometimes. Like he was trying so hard to keep up, but it just wasn’t possible because he was born too late, came into their lives after they had already learned all there was to know about each other and spoke some secret language nobody bothered to teach him. He remembered them sitting in the kitchen late at night, laughing and speaking in hushed voices, and stopping when he came down to get a cup of water. Phil asked him why he wasn’t asleep and said that he should go back to bed, and put on his rarely used Serious face when Tommy refused. They three of them went out sometimes, and the boy followed and saw them walking together between the stalls, calling each other to show something or other. He also wanted to laugh about the weird clay figurines with Techno and theatrically beg Phil for fruits like Wilbur did. But when he asked them excitedly if he could come with, they exchanged glances and said it was far too easy to get lost in the crowd and it would be better for him to stay at home. 

Tommy couldn’t wait to turn 19, because that was the age he could officially register as the witch hunter. All his family members were: Phil with his reputation of never failing to hunt down a magic user, Techno, famous for his ability to take on up to five witches at a time, and Will, a master of getting the information about the criminal out of anyone he chose to speak to. The boy wanted to be like them one day, strong and brave, to finally be able to protect the people that raised him and repay them for all the trouble he’d caused… For them to acknowledge him as an equal.

Tommy always knew witches were trouble. They lied, tricked and killed, weaved their magic webs and threatened peace like no regular person could. He heard all kinds of stories from the wandering witch hunters about the cruelty with which witches dealt with anyone who crossed their path. That’s why the job of a witch hunter was so prestigious and well-paid: the extremely high risk of getting painfully and mercilessly killed by other-worldly forces put most people off of even trying it out. It also required years of research and training, so most thought it better to master some craft instead of preparing yourself for death. But it still was a job that needed to be done, and Tommy had the best teachers anyone in his place could’ve wished for.

When the boy finally came home after saying goodbye to Tubbo it was already getting dark. The lamps were being lit, and the first stars were visible on the dark blue sky. Tommy was kind of nervous about going inside and thought about waiting for everyone to go to bed before climbing into the house through the window, but it was too late. Phil was sitting on the porch, looking directly at the anxious boy, so Tommy had no other choice but to come closer. Phil stood up and opened his arms invitingly; Tommy, tired after an eventful day, fell right into his embrace.

”I’m sorry about yelling. And the vase. And the window,” the boy mumbled into the older man’s shirt, “Promise it won’t happen again.”

He felt Phil chuckle doubtfully.

”I mean, it probably will, just not in the exact same way. I promise not to break windows with vases.”

At that Phil laughed louder, “It’s fine, mate, we all know you. You’re still fixing it though, no way you’re getting out of manual labour.”

Tommy sighed overdramatically.

”And here I was hoping someone fixed it for me when I was gone.”

”Tough luck, kid”, Phil pulled back and ruffled Tommy’s hair affectionately, “Come on in. Dinner is ready, and someone also wants to speak to you.”

Tommy groaned, “I don’t want to talk to Wilbur, he’s going to be mean and call me a child again.”

”He won’t, I promise. Go on, be the big person here.” Phil encouraged, swinging the door open for the both of them.

Tommy scratched his head and then nodded, determined, “I am a big man, so it’s not like I’ll have to try that hard.”

Phil laughed again, “That’s the spirit!”

They walked into the spacious kitchen and saw the usual scene: leftover porridge on the table, all the kitchen supplies lying in a pile in one corner of the counter with plates and tableware in the other, and Wilbur and Techno sitting on the floor and speaking in quiet voices. Phil cleared his throat and the brothers’ heads snapped towards him.

"How many times do I have to say it – no braiding hair in the kitchen! Techno, we find your hair in food for weeks afterward, at least have the decency to clean up after yourselves.”

Techno just turned his head away and hummed, “Yeah, I’m sure Wilbur will gladly take on this job, right, Will?”

”Of course, Technoblade”, Wilbur said almost unintelligbly because of the hairband he was holding between his teeth and continued twisting strands of his brother’s hair together.

Tommy and Phil exchanged glances: everyone in the room knew neither the older boys was going to actually follow through with their words so Phil will have to clean everything himself. The man let out an exasperated sigh and addressed Wilbur, “Will. I believe you had something to say to Tommy here.”

Wilbur took the band out of his mouth and tied it at the end of Techno’s long braid with one practiced move. Then he stood up, dusted off his trousers and came up to where Tommy and Phil stood.

”I’m sorry, Tommy, really,” started Will, rubbing his cheek and looking at something in the far corner of the room, “I shouldn’t have said what I did. It was uncalled for and not your fault, I was just joking around. I regret it and hope my words didn’t hurt you too much.”

Tommy crossed his hands on his chest and raised a questioning eyebrow, “And how long did you think about that apology? Two minutes?”

”Five, actually. You’re our sweet little child, you deserve only the nicest words," Wilbur smirked, satisfied. Tommy wasn’t really angry anymore, and it was certainly showing.

”Phil! You said you wouldn’t let him call me a child, and he just did!”

”Will, stop calling Tommy a child,” Phil shook his finger at Wilbur in a mockingly disapproving gesture, “Here. Now that everyone is happy and at peace, we have something to tell you, Tommy.”

Tommy swallowed. What happened? Was it something he did and forgot about? No, everyone seemed calm enough, if a bit too serious for his liking. Then what was it?

”What is it?” asked the boy, preparing himself.

”We got a job today. People started disappearing in a forest that was pretty peaceful before, about two towns away from here. It may be just wild animals that wandered from somewhere else, but about 3 days ago a group of experienced hunters went to investigate. None of them came back.”

An idea appeared in Tommy’s head, “But if you think it may not be connected to witches… Maybe I can come with you? Just to see what it’s like?”

The content exression on Phil’s face immediately shut down, and Tommy understood that he messed up. 

“Tommy, you know the rules. You can’t…”

”…go hunting until you’re officially registered, I know. But I’ve been training for 4 years already. And you are one of the best witch hunters around, I’m sure you wouldn’t let me get hurt!”, the boy continued, even though he knew it was almost useless at this point.

”Tommy,” Wilbur spoke suddenly, “of course we wouldn’t let anything hurt you, that’s not the problem. But you’ll make us vulnerable, and for a witch hunter one moment of vulnerability can cost human lives. You understand that, right?”

Vulnerable. Of course. Tommy was just a liability, a weak point. But he held his tongue: one shouting match with Will was enough for one day.

”Sure do, I am very smart, after all,” smiled Tommy, “It’s fine, I’ll watch the house while you’re gone.”

Phil smiled, relaxed now that the uncomfortable topic was avoided, “And watch Techno along with the house. Make sure he actually sleeps once in a while, not like the last time”.

Last time, about half a year ago Phil and Wilbur had also went on a hunt together, leaving Tommy with Techno. They’d been supposed to fix the old fence while their family members were gone. Techno had gotten so caught up in his research about different types of wood they could make a fence out of, he’d forgotten to sleep and passed out on the kitchen floor after eating a single slice of bread. Tommy had found him there and panicked thinking something horrible had happened, but nobody was allowed to know about that part. Needless to say, building that fence had no longer been a priority. 

”I take full offence to that, just so you know,” came the monotone reply from the man himself, and Tommy erupted into laughter. Some things just didn’t change.

# # # # #

Tommy was getting ready for bed when he heard someone knocking on his door.

”Come in!”

The door opened, and the boy saw Wilbur standing on the doorstep, holding something behind his back.

”We’re leaving early tomorrow, so I wanted to sing to you my new song before going to bed. As an apology,” Will explained, “’Cause I really am sorry.”

”It’s fine, Wilbur, I’m not that sensitive, you know.”

”Could have fooled me… Ahem. Anyway. Song. Want to hear?”

Tommy jumped on the bed, excited, and winced when he heard it creak pitifully. 

”Of course! Your songs are amazing, so if this is an apology, I absolutely haven’t forgiven you yet. You may proceed.”

Will laughed and came into the room. He sat on the bed next to Tommy, pulled the guitar on his lap and started playing.

The song was gorgeous. The man’s soft, clear voice fit perfectly with the flow of the guitar's melody, and Tommy felt his eyes close against his will. The last thing he saw before falling into nothingness was Phil and Techno standing in the doorway, listening and smiling to themselves.


	3. A Nice Day

When Tommy woke up the next morning, the house was silent. He came down the stairs to the kitchen and saw Techno sitting there with all his weaponry laid out in front of him. He was holding a sword in one of his hands and wiping it with an old cloth, occasionally checking for dirty spots. He didn’t find any, since cleaning, lubricating and when needed sharpening his weapons was a routine, but Tommy knew how important it was to take care of your weapons, so he didn’t comment on it. 

The boy didn’t have his own gear yet, which understandably upset him. He usually used his brothers’ old weapons in the rare times he was allowed to train with a real sword and not a wooden one.

”Phil wouldn’t be happy about you cleaning those in the kitchen.”

”Well, Phil isn’t here, so it’s fine,” replied Techno carelessly, not moving his eyes away from his task.

”Yeah! Who needs rules anyway, right?” cheered Tommy, pouring himself a cup of water and downing it in one go, “So they left already?”

Techno put away the sword and took a middle-sized ax from the pile, starting working on it as well. 

“Yes, about an hour ago. Said to take care of ourselves and not to get in any trouble, but I assume that second one was mostly addressed to you.”

”Ha-ha, that’s very funny, Technoblade, Mr. I’m-so-perfect-and-smart,” Tommy’s deadpan reply came. “You have something on your left tusk, by the way.”

Techno didn’t even blink at that. “And of course I believe you, it’s certainly not like you’re trying to distract me from work or anything.”

Tommy took another piece of cloth from the counter and came closer to the other man, “No, really, right there, there’s a spot.”

Techno moved his head back but the boy was faster. He wrapped his hand around the right tusk, wiped the other one and shoved the cloth in his brother’s face.

”See, there was some grease on it. I’m such a great and helpful brother, Techno, aren’t I?” Tommy paused to think for a moment and added, “That didn’t hurt, right? I didn’t just break them or something?”

Techno sighed heavily, put the ax on the table (Phil would’ve killed him if he saw that) and closed his eyes slowly.

”Tommy. You ask me this every time you even breath anywhere near my face. I’ll say it again: no, I can’t feel them. Yes, they’re pretty permanently attached, so you can’t pull them out by accident. The skin around is tough and has almost no sensitivity, so it doesn’t hurt when you tug on them, even though it is very annoying. Is that all? Or did I forget something?”

Tommy did, in fact, ask those same questions over and over. Not because he was stupid, mind, but because he was very curious.

Techno’s extra body parts, such as the tusks, the snout and the small pig ears had been a big talk in all the nearby towns. Some said he was born deformed, some of the more religious sort claimed that it was a punishment for a horrible sin he’d once committed, others talked about it being a very intricate costume to intimidate his opponents. But the truth was far simpler: Technoblade was cursed by a witch. No one in their family got into details on how and why, and Tommy never asked. It did seem a bit too personal, even for someone as curious as him. But, to be completely honest, Tommy didn’t find those traits weird or repulsing, but… fascinating. He didn’t tell anyone, of course – a witch had done it to his brother, and Techno probably felt horrible about the curse, but it was just so interesting. How did they work? Why a boar and not something else? All those questions made it seem like he was actually interested in the curse itself and not the way to break it, so Tommy asked the same couple of things one might ask in this situation and hoped that Techno would slip and give up more information than originally, but so far – no such luck.

They sat in silence for a bit, Tecnoblade cleaning the rest of his gear and Tommy eating the leftover porridge. It was nice and comfortable and not really something Tommy was used to. Usually mornings in their household were loud and chaotic affairs, but with Techno busy with his task and the younger boy still sleepy and not yet full of energy it was quiet and misty in a way Tommy’s thoughts lazily swam around in his head and refused to become cohesive sentences. 

Tommy swallowed the last spoonful of his porridge, put the plate away and leaned back in his chair. 

”We’ve run out of food, by the way. Just so you know,” he informed Techno.

”So that’s why you were eating week old buckwheat. I thought you knew something I didn’t,” the man replied.

Tommy sighed heavily, “It was a hint, Technoblade. We have no food, where do we get some?”

Techno paid no mind to Tommy’s dramatics, but instead stretched out a hand, took a small pouch from the far end of the table and put it in front of the boy.

”Phil said this should last us a week, two if you don’t lose half of it again.”

”What are you talking about? When have I ever lost something?”

“Where’s that talisman Phil gave you a couple of months back? Haven’t seen it in a while, wonder how it’s doing.”

Right, the talisman he really liked and then forgot where he put after a week of carrying it around everywhere. That talisman.

”Right, I’ve got to go buy us some food so we don’t starve. Talk to you later, bye, Techno!”

Tommy grabbed the pouch and a basket standing near the front door and ran outside. Another conversation about his flaws as a person avoided, he started his way to the market in high spirits. 

# # # # #

The market was busy, just like it always was in the mornings: the stall owners calling out to the passers-by in hopes of getting them to buy something and talking to one another in loud cheerful voices, the customers complaining about the prices and talking to friends and neighbors they suddenly met at the vegetables stall, everyone following their own trails and paths. Tommy didn’t often go here, but the crowd felt safe and almost didn’t overwhelm him. Nobody noticed the boy when there were so many people around: familiar faces became those of complete strangers, dozens of voices echoed each other and became one… A crowd was a perfect place to hide in.

Tommy tried to move out of people’s way, though mostly in vain, to get to different food sellers, checking out points on his mental list with each passed one. Soon his basket was almost full and the money pouch a lot lighter, but he figured everything he bought would be more than enough for the two of them.  
Suddenly someone pushed Tommy from behind and he almost lost the grip on everything he was carrying. He turned around in anger.

”Watch where you’re going, dickh… Tubbo?”

The person standing behind him, barely holding three giant baskets in his hands and smiling apologetically, really was Tubbo. He seemed to have recognized Tommy as well since his smile grew wider and more relaxed.

”Oh, hey, Tommy! Sorry about that, I’m a bit… out of hands, as you can see,” the boy greeted, gesturing at everything he was carrying with his chin, “I knew I should’ve taken less, but I didn’t think it would be that bad until I got into the crowd.”

Tommy rubbed his forehead and shook his head in disbelief.

”Of course you didn’t. All you think about is bees, there’s no space for anything else.”

Tubbo raised his eyebrows and said, “That’s just not true at all. You’ve met me a day ago. I have many interests, you know.”

”Sure you do, Tubbo.” 

Before the boy could protest further, Tommy looked at the baskets again and asked, “Where are you taking all this grass?”

”It’s not just “grass”! These are herbs for the apothecary. They have a lot of use and great healing properties.”

”Well, herbs are also grass, aren’t they? Anyway, is your apothecary far from here?”

”No, just a ten-minute walk. Why?” 

Tommy snatched the biggest basket out of Tubbo’s hands and turned around.

”I’m done here anyway, I can walk with you so you don’t crash into anyone else,” he said and started walking, not waiting for the other boy to follow, “You’re lucky I’m so nice, someone not as nice would’ve already beaten the shit out of you, I tell you.”

“You don’t even know where to go!” Tubbo shouted from behind. While that was true, Tommy didn’t stop walking, thinking Tubbo wouldn’t just let him get lost with a ton of his precious plants. And he was right: the boy caught up in a moment and pointed in the direction they needed to go, evidently giving up on trying to reason with Tommy in any way.

The walk was a pleasant affair. Tommy rambled, but instead of just nodding along or asking him to shut up like every other kid his age, Tubbo listened and answered and laughed at all the jokes and told ones that also weren’t half bad. They said their goodbye’s right after arriving at their destination since Tubbo said he needed to sort all those herbs of his and Tommy still had a window to fix.

Tommy was smiling the whole way home. It was a nice day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love me some exposition and senseless dialogue... The plot is in there somewhere, I promise. It's going to be quite a ride. Probably not for another chapter, though. Thank you to everyone leaving kudos and (gasp) commenting, you're pog :)


	4. A Return

It had been a week since Phil and Wilbur left. Tommy’d say that week had been pretty productive: he managed to talk Techno into helping him with fixing the window and together they finished with it in almost no time at all, completed the homework his teacher gave a while ago, trained with his brother every day, just like he always did with very few exceptions. But most importantly – Tommy spent a lot of time getting to know Tubbo.

They’d agreed to come to the forest clearing where they buried the bee the day they met. After Tubbo finished his workday at the apothecary, he and Tommy met up on the path leading to the “mini graveyard” and spent hours talking about everything that came to mind, eating berries and getting to know each other better. As it turned out, Tubbo really didn’t know who Tommy’s family was, and the boy decided to keep it a secret for a while longer. He didn’t want his new and only friend to treat him any different because of who his father and brothers were: Tommy knew a lot of other teens were jealous of his supposed heritage and the influence his family had on the townsfolk, so he didn’t tell Tubbo about them to just be seen as himself and not someone who held some resemblance of power and wealth. 

Having done all the chores around the house, Tommy now was walking up to their meeting place. It was the first day of August, and the weather was warmer than ever. It hasn’t rained in a while and the air was hot and heavy with hardly any wind to cool it down. Tommy was grateful for the shade all the trees provided, the leaves trembling slightly and creating bizarre patterns with constantly moving shadows. The boy felt at home surrounded by all the greenery, the lumpy earth chill under his feet and the occasional bird’s call bright in his ears.

The forest was far louder than most people gave it credit for – it constantly talked and whispered and laughed, welcoming and calm in its ancient wisdom. Tommy didn’t like silence all that much, so he enjoyed the permanent loudness of it all.

Tommy saw Tubbo on the path ahead of him and waved in greeting.

”Tubbo, my friend!” the boy shouted. There was no need to shout since they were about four feet apart, but it felt nice to be able to call somebody a friend so loud and clear and have them smile at that.

”Hey Tommy! How’s your day been?”, asked the other boy, waiting for Tommy to catch up to him to continue walking. 

”It’s been really good. I have some great news, actually!”, he shared.

”Oh, what is it?”

“My teacher went to visit her aunt two weeks ago, and today is the day she’s supposed to come back. I’ll probably be meeting her in about an hour, so I don’t have much time to spend walking the forest and collecting grass with you,” Tommy explained and then added, “Just don’t cry about it, I know how clingy you are.”

”Why are you so happy about your teacher returning? I got the impression you didn’t like studying that much,” Tubbo wondered, choosing to ignore Tommy’s comment about him.

The younger boy just smiled wider, “It’s not about her being a teacher, because yeah, schooling sucks. But she’s friends with my older brother and is really nice. She never gets mad at me unless I do something really bad, which – I don’t, so it doesn’t matter anyway. And I also want to hear about her trip. She promised to bring something back, isn’t she great?”

”What’s her name then?”

”Niki, she lives just next to my house.”

Tubbo’s face lit up with recognition, “Niki? I know Niki! She really is just the nicest. See this shirt?” The boy stopped walking for a second, raised his arms and moved his torso left and right, “She made it for my birthday.”

Tommy and Tubbo talked about Niki for a bit more. It was interesting to hear stories about their mutual friend and kind of strange to think that they both knew the woman for more than two years and often spent time with her, but never knew the other existed. Tubbo told that he and Niki met while collecting flowers in the field just out of town: Niki made beautiful bouquets for sale. She was the one to teach the boy about flowers and get him to become the apprentice at the place he worked at now.

”Without her, I wouldn’t be who I am today,” Tubbo said with more feeling than Tommy thought love for flowers warranted, but maybe he was just missing something.

Tommy met Niki through Wilbur. Her cart got stuck in the dirt in the middle of the road and Will, who was returning from a hunt, helped her move it. They’d never really talked before despite being neighbors, but it seemed that trying to move a heavily loaded vehicle in the dark with no tools really brought people together. Afterward she became good friends with the whole family – they helped each other around the house and spent a lot of time together. When Phil decided it was time for Tommy to learn about something other than witch hunting, Niki offered to become his personal teacher. She’d spent two years studying various subjects and sciences in the capital so everyone agreed she’d make a great teacher for the boy who seemed to behave much better in her presence.

“I’d love to meet Niki with you, but I promised to clean the house today and it’s already pretty late,” Tubbo said apologetically.

”It’s okay, I’m sure she’ll understand. I’ll tell her you said hi,” Tommy reassured him, “Bye, Tubbo.”

”See you tomorrow!”

# # # # #

It was already pretty dark when Tommy came out of the forest and onto the road to his house. He didn’t know when Niki was going to come home, so he wanted to get to her house as fast as he could. There was a definite possibility of the woman being too tired after the long road, and Tommy planned to just say hi and leave her to get a good night’s sleep, when he heard a familiar voice call out from behind:

”Tommy, please wait for me!”

Tommy immediately stopped walking and turned around, smiling. A woman was walking right behind him, carrying several large leather bags that looked quite heavy. 

"Niki, welcome back!” the boy exclaimed, stepping next to her.

”Thank you! I’d hug you, but my hands are full…” Niki smiled apologetically, as if it was her fault.

“What can I carry?” Tommy asked without missing a bit. He was getting a sense of déjà vu, but decided not to dwell on it for long.

”Oh, it’s fine, really,” just then one of the bags almost slipped from Niki’s hands as she struggled to catch it, “Okay, I guess you can take that one.”

Tommy took the bag from the woman’s hand and almost dropped it in surprise.

”That’s so heavy! How long have you been carrying this for? I mean, it’s nothing for me, but to you it must’ve been quite a weight.”

Niki giggled and nodded, “Of course, I didn’t even think about it, you’re clearly very strong. But, um, not for long? About half an hour.”

Sometimes Niki struck fear in Tommy’s heart. Not often, but it did happen.

Tommy cleared his throat, “So how’d your trip go? How’s your aunt?”

Niki’s face fell a little and she sighed, “It was nice visiting her, and she’s doing fine. But there are some… bad things happening around town, so I’m a bit worried about her.” She swallowed and continued, “A lot of people went missing in the last week. Nobody knows what’s happening and no one’s been found yet, so people try not to leave their homes after dark.”

Wasn’t that the same reason Wilbur and Phil went on their hunt? Was the witch moving around towns? Was their next? Tommy didn’t want to scare Niki who already seemed quite frightened so he didn’t voice his concerns, but he made a mental note to ask Phil about it. 

”I’m sure it’ll be okay, Niki, don’t worry,” the boy tried to reassure her.

Niki sighed again and shook her head, “I hope so, Tommy, I really do.”

”By the way, Tubbo asked me to say hi,” Tommy said trying to change the subject. 

”You know Tubbo? That’s wonderful, how is he doing?”

The distraction seemed to work perfectly: Tommy spent the whole walk home telling Niki everything Tubbo and he had been up to during the week, and the woman shared some of her stories as well. They parted ways near Niki’s house with her promising to visit later to talk to everyone properly.

When Tommy came close to the house, he saw Techno sitting on the porch with his hair loose and looking pretty miserable. Upon closer inspection he noticed a comb in his hand that he was holding so tight it looked like it was going to break at any moment. 

”How’s it going, big man? Having trouble with that fur of yours?” Tommy sniggered after sitting next to his brother.

Technoblade just hummed, obviously annoyed, and continued trying to work through the knots in his hair.

Tommy sighed in exasperation and pulled the comb out of Techno’s fingers, nearly having his teeth punched in in the process.

Everyone knew how much Techno hated combing and braiding his hair. Usually Will did that for him, but when he left for hunts the man's hair became a complete mess, so eventually he had to give in and let Tommy touch it. 

Tommy started going through it in silence, secretly enjoying the softness of the strands. He was almost finished with the braid when Techno’s head jerked up. Tommy looked at the road and abandoned his task in order to stand up and greet Phil and Wilbur who just came into view. 

But when they walked closer Tommy’s excitement lessened: Phil looked grim and had a deep frown on his face, and Will… he looked lost, like he wasn’t fully there.

Techno was at their side in seconds and asked in a concerned tone, “What… Did something bad happen? How was the hunt?”

Wilbur looked at his brother and opened his mouth to answer, but no sound came out. He seemed to curl in on himself and clutched his throat with one hand, looking exhausted.

Phil answered for him, “Wilbur can’t talk. We hoped it would pass, but it’s been two days. It was some sort of magic, but I've never seen anything like it.”

Tommy dropped the comb. 

This was not good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo, we're getting closer to the plot stuff! Thank you for reading, more coming soon <3


	5. Poppies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a CW for this chapter: a pretty detailed although short description of a character having a panic attack. If you want to skip it, stop reading after "Poppies. That’s what those red flowers were called – poppies." and check the end notes. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy the chapter!

The evening after Wilbur and Phil’s return went in a blur with Tommy shook up and in disbelief. He and Techno took all the gear from the horses’ backs without any prompting, and Tommy noticed a bandage on his adopted father’s arm, which only served to numb his senses further.

He knew without a doubt that witch-hunting was dangerous. He had tended to his family members’ wounds after their work before and understood the risks, but those injuries were all physical and real. You had medicine and doctors to deal with these, and while it was hard to see the people he cared about being in pain it still grounded the boy because of the way he always knew how to help and what to do to speed up the recovery. The problem with Phil’s arm would’ve been a regular misfortune if not for the fact that he probably got hurt trying to protect Will… and obviously failed.

Another curse in their family. Another painful reminder about how withes were cruel and precise and always hit where it would hurt the most. Did the one that put the curse on Wilbur know how important his voice was to the man and choose it as a target just to make it as bad as possible? Or was it just a horrible coincidence? Tommy needed to know just so there was at least something he could say he wasn’t in the dark about. 

He left all the gear in the corner of the room because he couldn’t be bothered to sort it out when his whole family was in as much distress as he was. He walked to the kitchen table and wanted to sit next to Techno who also just left the things he was carrying lying on the floor without order, but Phil put his hand on the back of the boy’s chair and pushed it back. 

”Go to your room, Tommy. We need to talk about this.” Phil said in a tone that allowed no further argument.

”But Will…” Tommy started just to be interrupted by Techno saying “It’s okay, Tommy. Phil and I will deal with this, and you have a lot of things to do tomorrow.”

It was a dismissal, of course it was. Tommy wanted to be there for his hurting brother, but it was fine if they didn’t want him here. He wouldn’t take precious time that could be spent on discussing the actual problem. He just came up to Wilbur and looked into his eyes, still hollow and somewhat murky, uninterested. Scared.

”It’ll be okay, Wilbur. We’ll go through this together,” Tommy whispered, giving the older man a quick hug before coming up the stairs and disappearing into his room.

The boy didn’t sleep well that night. He kept thinking about the way Wilbur held himself, about the expression on Phil’s face and the way Techno hovered over them, just as helpless and desperate to do something as Tommy was. He woke up late into the morning because of a confusing nightmare feeling groggy and not at all rested. He got dressed, walked out of his room and saw that the door to their little library next to it was shut and heard voices from inside, too muffled to understand any words. Tommy came closer to it and raised his hand to knock but paused at the last second. He recalled the way Phil sent him away yesterday’s evening, clenched his raised fist and walked away from the library. They were the smart and responsible adults, after all, they could figure it out without the help of a 16 year old boy who didn’t even like reading.

Who was Tommy kidding? He hated not knowing what was wrong with Wilbur, hated being useless and excluded again when he could at least try and be helpful. He grabbed the bags lying in a heap where he and Techno left them and started going through their contents mindlessly just to have something to busy his hands with. He went through all his chores on autopilot: cleaned and stored all the hunting weapons Phil and Wilbur took on their hunt, ate some vegetables left from his last trip to the store, fed and watered the horses – all the things he was supposed to do. When he was finished, he checked the library again just to see that everyone was still in there. 

Then Tommy remembered: Tubbo said he was going to collect more of his medical weed to restock today, so the boy could probably find him somewhere in the forest if he searched long enough. He couldn’t wait till the evening, he had too many thoughts in his head, and that was what friends were for, right? Listening to you talk about your problems? That sounded about right, and even if it wasn’t, surely Tubbo wouldn’t mind. Tommy could have gone and talked to Niki about it, but she might’ve been still resting, and Wilbur probably wanted to be there when she learned about his voice. The woman loved it when Will sang.  
Tommy spent no time packing lunch for himself and going outside. He planned to leave a note for Phil since he didn’t feel like returning before the dark but thought better of it. The man had bigger problems on his hands than a house missing a teenager.

# # # # #

Tommy was lost. It’s not like it was a big problem – the forest next to their town was fairly young and it took about 3 hours to walk from one edge of it to the other, but it was still a bad thing if Tommy planned to actually meet Tubbo before it got dark. He walked off a path half an hour ago to look for his friend deeper in the forest since the other boy once told him most of the actually useful and rare herbs often grow in darker places near the middle. He had no luck so far, and Tommy hoped Tubbo was actually there and he wasn’t stumbling over roots for nothing.

The trees around him started thinning out and the boy walked on a clearing he hasn’t been at before. It looked different from what he was used to – the grass was yellowish and looked old and trampled and there were no flowers to be seen. It seemed too empty and hollow and Tommy felt uncomfortable, like he just lost one of his senses he didn’t know existed. But then he looked to the other side of the clearing, he saw it: near the middle of the clearing was a tree that looked far younger than all the others in the vicinity. But that fact was just a quick thought at the back of his head, because the first thing he noticed about the tree was the way it was calling to him. Humming and almost glowing with that pale white light, it hypnotized Tommy. It seemed so nice and he could almost feel the warmth it radiated from the edge of the forest he was standing at.

He forgot about his goals that very second and decided to come closer and investigate. It was just a tree anyway, how bad could it really be? He should remember this place and show it to Tubbo later: that boy was a real plant lover, and this plant seemed like something he would definitely find interesting. God, wasn’t that tree just amazing…

He stood next to it in wonder. It looked so alive, like it was breathing and listening and would turn into a person at any moment to smile warmly, just like Phil smiled sometimes when he was proud of Tommy or Will when he was singing his favorite songs. It had this smell too: it smelled like the air after a warm rain, like fresh berries, like home. Tommy raised his hand to touch it when he heard a familiar voice yell:

”Tommy, stop! Go back!” 

Tommy snapped out of his strange daze, but it was too late. He already touched the tree with his fingertips, and it somehow was even better than he thought it would feel. Suddenly everything became that much more clear and bright: the chirping of birds, the calming murmur of the river in the distance, the colors and the warmth. Tommy felt that one unique type of happiness that only appears when you finally come home after a long absence.  
That’s when it all went to hell.

The strange tree in front of the boy suddenly turned to ashes and Tommy jumped away in alarm, but he didn’t hear the crunch of the old dry grass being crushed under his foot. He just heard a shocked gasp from behind him and looked under his feet. It would’ve been better if he didn’t.

Under his feet, fresh green grass sprouted in a matter of seconds, and bright red flowers he couldn’t remember the name of bloomed amidst the greenery. Tommy didn’t understand what was happening and froze up while the plants under his feet moved further around the clearing, making it look so much livelier than it was before. But that was the last thing the boy was concerned about – one memory was pulsing through his head along with his heartbeat of something a wandering witch hunter told him in passing:

”Magic is dangerous, son. Not only in a way it’s murderous and painful, but in a way it may seem beautiful at first glance. You don’t want to know how many victims of magic I saw in my time that were covered in flowers when they were found, suffocated with roots, and how many children are tricked into following a witch with an offering of a bouquet of poppies.”

Poppies. That’s what those red flowers were called – poppies.

Tommy couldn’t feel his legs so he fell on the ground as if boneless, feeling shocked and lost. His breath started coming out fast and short as black sports began dancing in front of his eyes. He could hear the blood rushing in his ears and his heart beating louder and louder with every second. He shriveled when he felt someone touch his shoulder lightly. What if it was Phil? What if he found him and saw what Tommy did and now there was a sword to his neck, and he didn’t even have time to figure out what happened for himself, what if it all was just a coincidence…

”Tommy, it’s okay. You’re fine, no one will hurt you. Breathe with me, Tommy, please.”

The voice seemed familiar but he couldn’t fully recognize it. It sounded distant and far away, and he was getting so cold, but breathing sounded like a good idea, although one easier said than done. 

In. Out. Slowly, with the instructions of the person behind him that thankfully stopped touching him, Tommy started breathing normally again, but that didn’t stop the buzzing of thoughts in his painfully throbbing head.

Was it yet another curse? Was he going to die? Or… was he actually the one who created all that?

Was he… a witch?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the CW: Tommy has a panic attack, Tubbo helps him through it and Tommy wonders if he might be a witch.
> 
> If all this seems a little incohesive - that's because it probably is. Everything will be explained as the story continues, though! Thank you for leaving kudos and commenting, it means a world to me <3


	6. Growth

Tommy didn’t know how much time had passed before he finally started putting his thoughts back together. The grass underneath him seemed sharp and burned his skin, reminding about the fear he felt and sending him into yet another spiral of horrible predictions. There was no way this could be anything good. How could it if the best option would be someone putting a curse on him, the idea of which always terrified Tommy? He was preparing for fights with witches for years, but the idea of magic influencing his life on a pretty much permanent basis still was one of the worst he could imagine. And now that he actually experienced it, everything he only heard about from others in hyperbolized stories and read in poetic and flowery books seemed that much more real. He felt the urge to laugh at his own cockiness – how could he have thought that witch hunting was anything he was actually capable of? Was he really that pathetic?

No, what was he even thinking about? He knew he could it. The first times were always scary, and the fact that worsened everything was that he didn’t see or even know about the enemy he was supposed to fight. The tree that started this nightmare was gone and with it any evidence that could lead a hunter to their prey.

The fog in his head started clearing out and the cogs in his head began spinning, trying to work out the clues for finding the culprit responsible for Tommy’s worst fear coming true. And, if he thought about it, his greatest wish too – didn’t he want to go hunting with his family just a little over a week ago to see a magic user for himself? Tommy actually felt better about this whole thing – it probably was just a curse, and a pretty harmless one at that since the poppies that moved their heads around him weren’t yet trying to suffocate him to death. He could totally brag about this to Techno and maybe even show Niki the flowers – after examining them with Phil, of course. These were technically magical objects, the results of some sort of spell being cast, and this was the only time Tommy could imagine himself being excited about research. 

”Tommy, can you hear me? How are you feeling?” a voice of someone to his right sounded, making the boy shiver in surprise.

”Shh, it’s all good, relax. It’s me, Tubbo. I know it can be hard recognizing people for a bit after you Grow.”

Tubbo? Oh, right, Tommy had been looking for him before shit went down. It was so Tubbo to look for Tommy when the other boy wasn’t even supposed to be there, the clingy bastard… Wait, “grow”? Did Tubbo hear something about this type of magic? He did know a lot about flowers, so maybe that included ways to deal with plant-related witchcraft.

“How loud is it? Do you need something to cover your ears? Will it help if I continue talking?” Tubbo asked in rapid succession just to backtrack after a moment, having caught himself babbling, “Alright, sorry, let’s start simple. Nod if you can hear me.”

Tommy nodded after a short pause. He did hear Tubbo, although not that good since the older boy kept whispering for whatever reason. The flapping of wings of a butterfly flying just behind the bush to Tommy’s right sounded far clearer if he was being honest.

“Alright, that’s good. Now try to concentrate on the earth. What do you hear?”

Tommy thought to himself “That’s such a Tubbo thing to say, it doesn’t make any sense”. Maybe Tubbo knew something he the younger boy didn’t, he was a doctor’s apprentice, after all. So Tommy did as he was told.

At that moment he could swear he heard the Earth breathe. Her every breath was like at least 10 of his, and the boy felt a wave of calm wash over him.

”Why hasn’t anyone fucking told me you can do that? That’s so calming, it’s insane…”, murmured Tommy while barely opening his mouth.

Tubbo laughed and it sounded like he was deep underwater, “It’s nice, isn't it? That’s the only part of my Grow I actually liked. Now it’s much harder to hear the Earth breathe.”

Wait a minute. Tommy snapped his already half-closed eyes open. Dirt didn’t have any goddamn lungs and wasn’t even alive, it didn’t and couldn’t fucking breathe. 

The boy sat up and immediately lowered his head onto his knees and covered his ears with his hands. Everything still hurt like a bitch and all these birds singing louder than his own thoughts didn’t help the case.

”Oh no, you probably shouldn’t have done that. You just spent a lot of energy, you’re probably feeling horrible,” Tubbo said sympathetically.

”No shit, Tubbo, I’ve been cursed with some plant magic, of course I feel horrible,” Tommy whined in anger, still not raising his head.

”Plant magic..?” the other boy asked in confusion, “I mean, it certainly is plant magic, but it's your plant magic.”

”No it’s not. You’re supposed to be a witch to do magic, and last I checked I’m not one!” Tommy shouted, distraught. Why was Tubbo even suggesting that? 

”Tommy, look,” the other boy called out. Tommy raised his head reluctantly and looked over.

”What’s your favorite flower?”

”I never really thought about it, a dandelion, probably,” he answered.

”Okay,” Tubbo smiled and put his hand on the ground palm down.

Tommy held his breath as Tubbo started slowly lifting his hand, whispering softly. A bright yellow flower began rising under his palm. When the flower was big enough for the boy, he whistled once and after a moment two bees flew out of the forest and landed on the newly grown dandelion. Tommy absently thought to himself, “I honestly expected witchcraft to look fancier”. Out loud, he screamed.

Everything still seemed a bit too loud and overwhelming, every tree branch feeling like an extra limb, but Tommy needed to get out of here. Maybe it was all just a continuation of his nightmare, because it sure felt like a fever dream.

# # # # #

Tommy walked the forest for hours, trying not to think about anything and just breathe. He didn’t want to acknowledge it, but he did feel a lot different in a good way. The colors seemed more vibrant and alive, the ground warmer, the air full of that pleasant smell of herbs Tubbo showed him one time. 

He felt lost and more alone than ever, unsure and anxious. His thoughts kept returning to the flower Tubbo grew with a flick of his wrist, to the wonder he felt in that moment. Why was everything so damn complicated all of a sudden? Tommy just wanted to be funny with his new friends, annoy his brothers and become the most famous and powerful witch hunter to ever walk the earth. He wasn’t interested in grass and bees and weird magical trees, but here he was. Somehow being invested in all of them. How was this his life?

He didn’t want to return home now, the boy had too much on his mind. He thought about coming back and seeing cursed Wilbur who doesn’t talk and imagining roots around his throat just like in the stories he heard with himself in the villain’s place and felt sick to his stomach. He left his lunch on that shitty clearing with the damn poppies, but it didn’t matter since he couldn’t imagine eating anything right now without throwing up. Yes, the only thing he was hungry for at the moment was the understanding of what the hell had gone on in that forest.

The only thing he was sure of: Tubbo had been a witch from the start. That certainly explained his bee powers.

”’I just like bees’, of course, Tubbo, I totally believe you,” Tommy muttered, kicking a rock off the path in anger.

The boy sat down under a tree, exhausted after the long walk. His legs were screaming at him to rest for quite some time, so he finally complied. Tommy closed his eyes, rubbed them so hard he started seeing stars and yawned. 

”This sleepless night must be getting to me,” Tommy thought before dozing off.

# # # # #

Tommy woke up disoriented in both metaphorical and literal sense. The boy couldn’t feel the ground under himself and felt like he was shaking slightly. It took him a second to understand he was being carried and another one to look at his transport and recognize it as his half boar brother. His hair was braided again – it seemed Wilbur did his usual job even while feeling down. Tommy wiggled in place to look around and find a more comfortable position before starting complaining and showing his displeasure of being carried like a child when he was clearly a man, but Techno spoke first.

”Woke up at last? I was thinking about looking for a frog to kiss you, or whatever that story was about,” the man smirked, not pausing for a second.

”For someone who reads so many books you sure know nothing, huh, Blade?”, Tommy retaliated, “And I’ll have you know, I would only be kissed by beautiful women.”

”Whatever you say, Tommy. Also, for someone who’s illiterate you sure talk like a person that knows something.”

”You got me there, Techno. That’s because books are for lesser men and I’m smart without them.”

Techno rolled his eyes, but Tommy already moved on to the question that popped into his head.

”Where did you even find me? And why? Weren’t you all busy trying to help Wilbur?”

Tommy noticed the older man’s face soften a bit. It was almost nonexistent, blink and you’ll miss it change, but Tommy knew his brother’s expressions way too well not to see. And for a moment, it seemed like everything would work out.

”It was actually Will that wondered where you were. He pointed at the word “annoying” in the book and Phil and I immediately knew what he meant,” Techno explained, “I volunteered to look for you since I know the area so well. You started spending an awful lot of time in that forest...”

Tommy became nervous again in a matter of seconds. Did Techno know? Or maybe just suspected? The boy felt the dread coming in waves and tried to calm down, but his brother noticed anyway.

”Don’t fret, Tommy, I wasn’t blaming you for anything. It was just an observation.”

An observation. But how long would it take for every innocent observation to come together into one damning picture?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This work is almost at 200 kudos, that's so cool! Thank you to everyone leaving feedback, it makes my day!! Hope you continue supporting the story.
> 
> I'm not very proud of this chapter (or any others, really...), but I hope you enjoyed it.
> 
> P.S. While writing the ending scene I remembered all that dialogue was happening with Techno princess-carrying Tommy and had to pause to laugh, pfff. My sense of humor is bad.


	7. Conversations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lovely high-priestess-of-daydreams on tumblr (Queen_Sammy on here) drew [witch!Tubbo](https://high-priestess-of-daydreams.tumblr.com/post/639490159397699584/this-is-for-t0tallyspine-thank-you-for-writing) for this story. Thank you ^-^

The whole walk back to the house was spent bickering about something or other and arguing about books that Tommy had never read but had a lot of opinions on. Tommy tried his hardest to stop thinking about all the horrible ways this situation could end in for him, but every time he thought he finally succeeded the boy took one look at Techno’s face, saw his tusks and started feeling guilty again. He wasn’t used to feeling so out of it in his own skin. Tommy felt like his own body was betraying him. Was that how Techno and now Wilbur felt all the time? Being something that wasn’t really them, those details that ruined the whole picture no matter how hard you tried to suppress them. You weren’t supposed to hear the ground under your feet sing, but Tommy couldn’t get its song out of his head.

”Of course you wouldn’t know anything about him, he writes books that don’t have any pictures in them. And that’s the deal breaker for you,“ Techno answered to the younger boy that said he’d never heard about some obscure author that probably only his older brother knew about.

”I just don’t read books by boring people,” Tommy countered, purposefully turning as far away from the other’s face as it was physically possible.

”You just don’t read. Full stop,” Techno said and suddenly stopped walking.

"Alright, I think we’re close enough that you won’t fall down from exhaustion while trying to reach the house.”

With these words the man leaned down a bit and then promptly took his arms from under Tommy. The boy tumbled down and hit his elbow on a rock near Techno’s feet.

He shouted, “What the fuck, Blade? You want to kill me or something?” He paused for a bit, “And how the hell did you carry me for this long? Are your arms just dead right now?

Technoblade didn’t answer and continued walking as if he didn’t just drop a teenager on the hard floor. Tommy scrambled to stand up but it was pretty difficult since his legs had fallen asleep.

”Fuck you, man,” the boy said with feeling, finally getting up and trying to shake the painful tingling off of his limbs.

Soon Tommy noticed the rest of his family waiting for them. He took a deep breath and clenched his jaw, still nervous. He’d checked himself over in the river’s reflection while wandering aimlessly through the forest, so logically he knew there was nothing different about his appearance. But it just felt like Phil, being the experienced witch hunter, would take one look at Tommy and immediately know about everything that happened.

Wilbur was leaning against the wall and waving with a calm smile. Phil stood next to him with his hands in his pockets, looking at the side and breathing so deeply it was visible from a distance. After coming closer the boy noticed they both had bags under their eyes. Tommy wondered how long they hadn’t rested and if they spent the entirety of last night looking through every book on curses and spells they had in hopes of finding a cure. He thought they probably did.

”So where’ve you been all day?” Phil asked as soon as the two brothers joined him and Will on the porch, “Could’ve left a note. We were getting kinda worried, mate.”

’I didn’t think you’d care,' flashed the thought in Tommy’s head, but he didn’t voice it.

”I wasn’t gone for that long, I’m not a child,” he said instead in a capricious tone, hoping to come off as light and carefree and absolutely not suspecting himself to be a witch.

”Well, I can argue about that second one,’ Tommy opened his mouth to object, but Phil raised his finger in warning, “Ah, but I won’t. Right now. But do you know what time it is?”

Tommy thought for a second. It was pretty dark, but he didn’t really think about it since the moon was almost full and gave enough light for it to seem early enough.

”It’s 3 in the morning, Tommy,” Techno answered for him.

Oh.

”Oh,” said Tommy aloud. He’d rarely been out after 11pm without at least someone from his family knowing about. Well, that was awkward.

”I’m sorry, Phil. I lost track of time, really. Didn’t mean to worry any of you” 

Phil yawned and rubbed his eyes, “It’s fine as long as you’re safe. Just warn someone next time you decide to spend your night under the stars. Alright, I’m going to bed, you boys do whatever, just don’t be loud,” With that Phil clapped Tommy on the shoulder, nodded to Techno and ruffled Wilbur’s hair going through the door and disappearing into the house.

”I’ll be in the library if anyone needs me. But just… don’t need me. I’ve already had enough of all of you for the day,” Techno said on his way to the door.

”You’ve only spent like half an hour with me!” Tommy yelled after him, indignant.

”Half an hour more than preferable, if you ask me,” was the last thing the man said before stepping into the building.

”Bitch,” Tommy mumbled and yelled as an afterthought, “I know you still like me though!” He really hoped Techno did. There was no answer.

The only one left standing with the teen was Wilbur, now full on smirking. Tommy thought it was better than whatever ghost version of himself Will had been yesterday’s evening.

”How are you, Will?” Tommy asked quietly. He wasn’t used to the man being silent, and disrupting that silence seemed… wrong, somehow.

Will shrugged, pushed himself off the wall and passed Tommy a piece of paper that said “Hey Tommy, I want to talk to you. My room?”

”Sure thing.”

Wilbur’s room was on the first floor of the house right next to Techno’s. They used to share a big one, but after an incident everyone refused to tell Tommy about they divided it with a wall. Now their rooms were far smaller, but both seemed pretty content with them. 

Will’s room had paper thrown around all over it, music sheets and stupid doodles and old research spread on almost every surface. The man came to his bed, brushed every piece of writing off it and then sat down on it and patted the blanket next to him. When Tommy landed on it, Wilbur took leather bound notebook and a pencil from the table next to the bed and started writing it in vigorously. Right, from that moment on they had to communicate through paper, Tommy thought right before Will finished and passed him the notebook.

”You’ll now have to read things to talk to me. Think it’s not too hard for you?”

Tommy’s mouth opened in surprise.

”You know what, Will? I now feel no sympathy for you. You absolutely deserved this. I’m so happy you can’t talk back to me now, I can insult you however I want.”  
The man froze, and the boy wondered if he went too far, but then he started laughing – soundlessly but mirthfully, with his head thrown back and his eyes closed. 

After calming down a bit, Wilbur grabbed the notebook again and wrote, “Oh, Tommy, you always know just the right thing to say.” With an “oh”. What a pretentious  
wanker.

”Alright, you said you wanted to talk to me. What was it? I want to go to bed already,” Tommy said impatiently. He didn’t really want to sleep, he just wondered if Wilbur wanted to share something about the hunt with him and that thought made him wish his brother would start talking sooner.

Will nodded and, after thinking for a couple of seconds, wrote, “You’re a good kid, Tommy. I know you want to help. But this really isn’t something you need to concern yourself with.”

Tommy read the words over Wilbur’s shoulders and hummed disbelievingly. 

Wilbur continued, “No, really. It’ll be fine. I can’t tell you off anymore or argue with Techno or”, he looked over to the corner of the room where his guitar stood. He didn’t finish the sentence, just started writing on the next page, “But it’s not the end of the world. We’ll find the bastard who did this and make them pay.” 

”But why can’t I help, Will?” Tommy asked, “I’m not asking to take me on actual hunts, but I…” He sighed. 

“Forget it. I’ll just be here. For you. Not in a sappy way or anything, just to make fun of you if others feel too bad for you to do it.”

Wilbur just smiled and nodded. The conversation was over.

”Goodnight, Wilbur,” Tommy muttered.

”Goodnight, Tommy,” Will mouthed in return.

# # # # #

The next morning started with a knock on the door. Tommy was sitting in the kitchen after spending the night awake, thinking. He’d wanted to try and read some books about plant magic they had in the library, but decided he was too drained to spend his time reading books. He didn’t think anyone else was awake yet.

Tommy yelled “coming”, wincing after remembering the state of exhaustion everyone was in, but it was too late to take the word back. He went to open the door and shouted again, this time pleasantly surprised, 

”Niki!”

It was indeed Niki standing in front of the boy and smiling happily.

”Good morning, Tommy! Didn’t think you’d be up at this hour.”

Usually no one in their family was up at this hour, but Niki usually only visited in the evenings so couldn’t know about it. 

”Yeah, well, early bird catches the worm and all that crap, right?” Tommy smiled nervously while Niki looked at him with suspicion. She was very adamant about him keeping a normal sleep schedule. “Come in! I was about to find something to eat, you can join.”

Niki walked after Tommy into the kitchen and said, “Oh, there’s no need. I actually brought pancakes and a potato pie I made.”

”Food! Umm, I mean, you shouldn’t have…” Tommy scratched his neck and smiled awkwardly. He was really hungry and hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday breakfast.

At that moment Phil showed up on the stairs and walked down.

”I distinctly remember saying something about not being loud,” the older man grumbled. 

“Good morning, Phil! I’m so sorry if I woke you up, I can come back later.”

Phil noticed the woman standing next to Tommy and smiled welcomingly, “Niki, you’re here! I wanted to go to yours today. No, it’s okay, I’m already awake anyway. Sit here, I’ll cook something for us.”

”Niki brought us food!” Tommy said to Phil and gestured to the basket on the table.

”Did someone say food?” came a question from the hall. Next second Techno walked in and greeted Niki when he saw her.

All together they started putting all the food down on the table. It smelled delicious and Tommy’s stomach kept grumbling because of it.

”Where’s Will? Is he still asleep?” the woman inquired. Everyone suddenly remembered: she didn’t know. 

Tommy was going to just say yes to Niki’s assumption when the man in question walked into the room.

Wilbur came closer to Niki and hugged her wordlessly, with Niki smiling in delight and hugging him back.

”Will, hi! How’ve you been? I heard you went on a hunt with Phil, how did that go?”

The man sighed and put a piece of paper in his friend’s hand. Niki looked confused, but took the paper and started looking through it. The longer she read, the more concerned and upset she looked. She had tears in the corners of her eyes by the time she finished.

”Oh Wilbur, I’m so sorry that happened to you…” Niki whispered and hugged him again, “I’m always here if you want to share something. Thank you for telling me.”

Finally they both pulled away and sat in their chairs in the table. After that everyone started talking about their days and Niki’s trip, checking that Will always had time to write his thoughts down. 

When the breakfast was done with and the plates washed and put away, Niki said, “Phil, do you mind if Tommy comes home with me? I need to discuss his study plans with him now that I’m back.”

Tommy groaned while Phil nodded agreeably, “Sure. Education is important, Tommy, stop embarrassing me in front of your teacher.”

Niki smiled gratefully, “Thank you! C’mon, Tommy. We have much to talk about.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have most of the important plot points figured out, but everything in-between is still under construction and can change. So if you have any suggestions or want to see some scenes or interactions, tell me in the comments or write me on tumblr (@t0tallyspine).
> 
> Thank you so much for reading this work and for all the support! You're pog <3


	8. A Teacher

Tommy went into his room to get all the books and paper for his lessons. He didn’t think Niki would actually have him study something right away with no warning, she was too nice to make him suffer like that, but he wanted to get everything just in case. He’d also done his homework pretty early this time, so he wanted to have it checked and forget all about the biographies of rulers he had to go through dozens of books for to write down and learn. 

He was actually pretty surprised: Niki’d rarely visited without warning and never before that early in the morning. Maybe she wanted to check on them after the hunt and all that was happening with the missing people in the area, maybe she wanted some company after living with someone else for a week – it didn’t really matter to Tommy. He thought it was a good thing regardless of the woman’s reasons. Everyone seemed happy to see her, and now that Wilbur told her about his curse the man had one more supportive person by his side.

Tommy grabbed everything school-related that he dug out from under the mess on his desk and came down to the kitchen. Techno and Phil were still sitting at the table talking while Niki was waiting by the door, laughing at something Will wrote to her. The boy waved to Phil who turned his head to him when he walked in and came up to his teacher and brother.

”Will, you’re being really clingy right now. Niki has a job to do, and you’re taking her time again,” Tommy declared when standing next to the man. 

The boy heard Phil laugh behind him - either at his words or at something Techno told him, he wasn’t sure. Wilbur scribbled on his paper and showed it to Tommy.

”Shut up, child”, it said in big jumping letters.

”Sure, old man,” Tommy laughed and moved to the door, “Let’s go, Niki.”

Niki giggled but lifted her basket from the floor next to her, “Goodbye everyone! Promise to return Tommy back safe and sound.”

”Oh, we’re not worried. If you could keep him, that would be fantastic,” Techno commented from where he was sitting.

Tommy decided to ignore his brother’s words like a wise man he was, but still muttered “Dickhead” under his breath, making Niki snigger and Wilbur roll his eyes fondly.

”I would, but I know there are three people that need him far more than I do,” said the woman with a smile and stepped outside, with Tommy right behind her.

Niki’s lived in a small one-story house next door. They weren’t any other buildings nearby – everyone preferred to settle near the center of the town for safety and easy access to the marketplace. Niki inherited her house from her grandmother and once told Tommy that it had too much history to just sell, and she didn’t have enough savings to have a new one built in the center and leave this one.

”I like it here more anyway,” the woman had shared with him one time, “It’s peaceful and quiet, and the forest is right outside the door.”

The house itself was very cozy, warm and made to last for a long time. It had a nice garden in the back that Niki was very proud of and spent a lot of time tending to. It had a small kitchen, a single bedroom and a room similar to a study with bookshelves and a table where Tommy’s lessons were conducted. It was quite ordinary, but homey and welcoming in its own simple way. 

Niki let Tommy into the study and went to the kitchen to make them both some tea. The boy looked around after putting all his things down on the table and found the room looking pretty much the same as it’s been a couple of weeks ago when Niki left. There was a bit more dust than usual since the woman probably didn’t have time to tidy up after her return. Tommy hated cleaning the house, but as the youngest and the only unemployed member of the family it naturally became his constant duty. 

There was also a large beautiful flower pot near the window that Wilbur brought Niki after a hunt (dragging it all the way back was an absolute nightmare, according to his complaints afterward). She planted a rose in it and it was now in full bloom, decorating the room and smelling absolutely wonderful. Tommy came closer to look at it and patted one of its leaves with his finger. He thought it was pretty, but not as pretty as the dozens of blood-red poppies that had surrounded him on that clearing. They were his flowers, and that made them…

Tommy’s eyes widened in horror and he jerked his hand away, stumbling and kicking the pot in the process. It shook a bit and the boy reached out to stop it, but only made it worse. The pot fell over and thankfully didn’t break, but the dirt spilled all over the floor and the flower’s stem broke in the middle. Tommy looked at it blankly with his hands still outstretched to hold the pot that already wasn’t there.

”Shit, I fucked up,” the boy whispered.

And he did. That rose was really important to Niki and she was so excited for it to bloom, and now Tommy ruined it for her. 

”Okay, okay. What do I do to fix this,” he muttered, thinking hard about it.

Tubbo growing a dandelion for him came to Tommy’s mind unprompted, and he tried to shake the memory off. Even if he was a witch, which was extremely unlikely, but if he was, he still wouldn’t use any magic powers on Niki’s favorite flower, for fuck’s sake. But that was the thing, right? She already received bad news, finding out her beloved rose died would make her even more upset. And if nobody saw it, nothing happened. Isn’t that how it worked?

”Alright. I just move my hand over it and… whisper shit?” Tommy wondered aloud, confused.

He put his hand above the broken part of the rose, squeezed his eyes shut and whispered, “Please work so I can forget about this and never think about it again.”

”Tommy? I don’t think you’re doing this quite right,” Niki’s gentle voice sounded from behind him. 

Tommy swallowed. Why did he think it was a good idea? What possessed him to try doing magic for a damn flower?

He breathed out shakily and opened his eyes. Niki was squatting down next to him and looking way too calm for someone who just saw their student and friend trying (and failing) to do witchcraft.

But instead of getting scared or angry, the woman smiled and continued, “I’ll show you.” 

Tommy watched Niki touch the stem of the rose, still shaking with adrenaline, and wasn’t even surprised when the tear started to knit itself together, slowly but surely until there was no trace of it left. 

”Was that what you were going for?” Niki asked and chuckled when seeing the expression on Tommy’s face.

”How is there so many of you,” the boy asked blankly. 

# # # # #

Niki and Tommy were sitting in the kitchen with cups of tea standing in front of them. Tommy helped his teacher get rid of the dirt and got to the kitchen on autopilot, and now they both were sitting in silence, waiting for something to click and change in the air.

“What the actual fuck.”

And then it did.

Niki sighed and smiled encouragingly, “So, I’m a witch! I'm sorry I didn’t tell you earlier, I was kind of afraid you’d hunt me down.”

There was more silence because Tommy didn’t really know how to answer that. On the one hand, that was true. Niki was a witch, and all witches should be hunted down and punished for using magic. But on the other… Here he was, drinking tea with a criminal. And the only crime he’d seen her commit was fixing a broken flower.

”Did you know? That I was a witch?” Tommy asked. He wasn’t sure was himself, so he asked the direct question to see what Niki would answer to maybe find out once and for all.

”No, not until yesterday,” the woman answered.

”Yesterday? I haven’t seen you yesterday, have I?” Tommy asked, confused. Was Niki in the forest when the Tree Incident happened? And then it clicked.

”It was Tubbo, wasn’t it. He told you what happened because he’s also a witch,” the boy concluded.

The woman nodded in agreement. Was that the reason they became friends? To do rituals and cast spells together? 

”But I don’t know if I’m a witch for sure. I touched a weird tree right before doing… whatever I did with all those plants. Maybe it was cursed!” Tommy tried to argue, telling openly about his doubts. 

He honestly didn’t know what he wanted to be true more. If he was a witch, that meant he became an enemy to the three people closest to him by doing nothing but existing, and that was terrifying. But if he wasn’t… that meant he knew two people who for sure were and had to either bring them, the only people he considered friends, to justice, or live in constant fear of them using their magic to hurt him or others. It was a tough choice which he didn’t even have.  
But he shouldn’t have to think about it anymore, because in front of him was a person who could clear everything up.

And she didn’t disappoint.

”It’s in the way you hold yourself, Tommy. It may sound silly and is completely invisible to those who haven’t Grown, but you’re so in tune with the world around you that you walk different, you talk quieter, you listen closely to sounds that just don’t exist to normal people,” Niki explained.

”Like the ground breathing,” Tommy muttered.

”Yes, like that! And what does the ground sound like now? Concentrate, it may be harder now, but I’m sure you’ll hear it,” the woman encouraged.  
Tommy listened and listened, but there were too many thoughts in his head and a snake crawling right outside the window and the wind moving in the leaves… 

”Think about something that connects you to the Earth. There should be something that is a constant, something quiet enough to not overweigh the sound you want to hear,” Niki advised.

The poppies. The bloody poppies came to his mind again, but this time instead of shooing the thought away, he concentrated on it. And here it was – that one sound that was different from the rest.

”It’s humming. Like it’s waiting for something, anticipating,” Tommy breathed out.

Niki smiled blindingly, “That’s right! She’s waiting for something in excitement, and her hum is content. That means it’s going to rain soon!”

”So I got it? I heard it right?” Tommy perked up, proud of having done something correctly.

”Yes, you did. See, Tommy – that’s what witches are good at. We channel the Earth and everything she births and feeds and loves. It’s not about curses and danger and rituals, as you were probably thinking,” Tommy scratched his head at having been called out so easily, “it’s about Nature, Tommy. It’s not a burden – it’s a gift. And I can teach you to see it as such.”

Tommy looked at Niki and saw that she wasn’t smiling anymore, even though her expression remained patient and gentle. She was serious about this.

The boy swallowed. He thought about Tubbo and his bees, the dandelion, the poppies and the way Niki always had something nice to say to Tommy when he was feeling down. And then he thought of Tehcno’s silent support and protection, about Wilbur’s songs and praise and Phil’s patience and acceptance. The way this would make his family as distant to him as it was humanly possible in just one step, one moment enough for it to never be the same again.  
He didn’t tell Niki any of it.

”I need to think about this,” he said instead, and the woman nodded in understanding.

”Of course, Tommy. Take all the time you need. I’ll be your friend no matter what you decide.”

Tommy went and took all his books off the table as fast as he could and moved to the door, too scared and unsure to look his teacher in the eye. But when he was already through the doorway, he heard Niki say, 

”Tommy! Tubbo is really worried about this. He misses you.”

Tommy sighed, “I miss him too.”

He shut the door behind himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I wrote most of this while watching Fundy and Co's drunk shenanigans so if you thought something was off while reading, that's because I wrote it while trying not to fall off the chair laughing and was too lazy to edit it afterward :)
> 
> Anyway - thanks for your support! You're all lovely, I hope you have nice holidays <3


	9. Drowning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CW for this chapter: description of drowning. If that's not your thing, stop reading after "They ran for a long time, the rich boy taunting and laughing and Tommy chasing him, his small underfed body shivering from the cold." and continue on "Tommy screamed in horror and opened his eyes", and then check the end notes.
> 
> Hope you like the chapter!!

The first thing Tommy did after returning home was announce loudly that he now had some studying to do and was not to be disturbed and locked himself in the library. There were three separate bookshelves for all the observations on witches researchers and hunters, including his family, made. All the information about magic users and their powers, methods of hunting them down and, when necessary, eliminating them was carefully documented and passed down to students and family members.

Witch hunting was not only a difficult job in terms of risk and physical training, but also a complicated and intricate science. Many hunters that decided to retire for whatever reason – an untreatable injury, a physical disability due to trauma or a wish for companionship and family, - often became researchers and conducted studies to learn as much about witches as it was possible. The less aggressive and dangerous witches that weren’t executed immediately after their capture were brought to research centers in the capital where they were interrogated and experimented on. Tommy’s brothers and father didn’t talk much about it since they usually only took the job if the situation with a witch was dire and extreme. Those ones usually didn’t end that peacefully.

Even though the research teams worked restlessly and more and more witches were brought to the facilities with volumes of documents written about their origins, lives and powers, nothing seemed to lead to anything useful. If something earth-shattering was to be discovered on the subject of magic and magic users, Tommy would definitely hear about it. He didn’t like to bury himself under heavy books, but the boy adored listening to wandering hunters that stayed in the town’s tavern on their way from the capital talk about every new success of the witchcraft researchers. But now that it could affect him directly Tommy decided to try and get the information from somewhere more official than the gossip of drunks.

He took the first three books that caught his eye form the shelf: “The Origins of All Magics”, “Types of Witchcraft” and “The History of Witch Hunting”. The last one didn’t seem particularly useful to him at the moment, but he decided to leave it on the table just in case.

Tommy knew that “Types of Witchcraft” was mostly a collection of everything hunters witnessed in the field and wrote down in their journals to then be added in. Almost every witch hunter had their own copy of this book. The one Tommy was holding in his hand was now twice as heavy as it was supposed to be originally since Phil, Techno and Wilbur kept adding their own pages with notes and sketches. Tommy opened the book somewhere in the beginning and read silently:  
”Magic powers seem to have elemental division on categories: Earth, Fire, Air and Water. All witches seem to use the type of magic connected in one way or the other to their designated element. It is unclear whether the elements are assigned physically and if so, on what basis the element is decided. There seem to be no visible signs of belonging to any power type groups, the likes of markings on the witch’s body.”

Tommy wondered if he had the earthly type of magic and if it was somehow connected to the way he acquired it. Deciding to leave that question for later, the boy looked through the table of contents: it listed the elements one by one and then moved on to “Spells”, “Curses”, defensive and offensive magic analyses, “Rituals” and many more specific ways magic could manifest in the hands of a witch. That didn’t seem that relevant to Tommy’s situation, so he moved on to the book that had his interest in the first place: the book about the origins of witchcraft. He wanted to know if he could’ve somehow prevented everything that happened and if the book had something on charmed magnetic trees. He found the section titled “The Acquisition of Witch Powers” and opened it.

”There are believed to be several methods of acquiring the witch powers, such as rituals, sacrifices (of animals, children, valuable possessions), consuming of various potions, etc.It is also highly possible that magic is passed down through blood from parents to children.”

Well, that was pretty fucking vague, wasn’t that? Tommy thought it sort of made sense to not put the detailed descriptions of the rituals in an informational book so no one would actually try them out. But could they be at least a bit more specific? There was nothing helpful there! Tommy closed the book with a bang. This was exactly why he didn’t like reading, it was just completely useless. There was just one book left to check out. There were of course many more in the bookshelves, but he doubted they would have any tips for a teenager in a family full of witch hunters that suddenly found out he could do plant magic.

Tommy hated the history books. Everyone told him that history was important, but what was there of importance in things that had happened so far back in time it had no connection to the present? People believed a lot of stupid things in the past, he doubted they’d been any more knowledgeable about witch hunting back then than they’d been about the shape of the Earth.

He opened the book at a random page in the middle that happened to be the start of a new chapter simply called "Witch Trials". Tommy knew that most witch trials were held in big cities and had even seen one a couple years back. The witch had been interrogated and confessed almost immediately just to be put in a secure cart and driven away to one of prisons near the edge of the city. The boy wondered how it had been done a century ago, so he turned the page to see the details.

There was a black and white picture on the first page of the chapter. But instead of the usual stand for the criminal and a judge's chair, he saw a river, a crowd in weird clothes and a half-naked woman standing near the water with a thick rope tied around her waist. The paragraph next to the picture read:  
"A person, when accused of performing witchcraft, is brought to the nearest body of water, stripped down and thrown into it. It was believed that the water would reject the witch's body. A person is considered innocent if they drowned and a witch if they swam back up. There was a rope tied to the waist of the accused person to get them out of the water if they didn't appear on the surface, but the incidents of the innocent people drowning were still very common. Nowadays it has been proved that this method is unreliable..."

There was more text on the next page, but Tommy had enough. He closed the book and put it away with the two others he took for his research. He knew he hadn't spent nearly enough time to go outside yet, so he opened one of his notebooks and started doodling flowers on the half-filled pages, trying to get the image of the woman out of his head.

He remembered the winter when he was 10 years old, still living on the streets and fighting with other orphaned children for scraps of food and warm clothing. There had been a lake not that far out of town where a lot of people went fishing and where children loved to swim in the summer. Some kid from a pretty wealthy family took Tommy's only cloak while he was asleep an ran away with it as soon as the boy woke up and demanded it back. They ran for a long time, the rich boy taunting and laughing and Tommy chasing him, his small underfed body shivering from the cold. 

They got to the lake and the other boy, clearly already exhausted from all the running and getting quite bored, reached out the hand with the coat, but as soon as Tommy tried to take it from him the stranger drew his hand back and threw it far onto the ice covered lake. Tommy hadn't wasted any time and stepped into the surface of the lake, going carefully over to where he saw his clothes lying on the ice. He'd already been so close when he felt the ice under his feet crack and break and fall apart, until he couldn't find the balance and fell into the freezing cold water.

He couldn't really remember what happened in detail. He remembered only the cold and the numbness and the fear, that certain type of it when your body screams at you to move and save yourself, but you can't, you know there's nothing you can do but still keep trying and moving way too much and wasting your energy until there's nothing left of it. It was a miracle that he'd survived that. Tommy'd gotten horribly sick right after, but thankfully it didn't have any major aftereffects on his health.

When Tommy came back from his foggy memories, he noticed that the whole page he was in was now covered in pictured of miniature flowers and the pencil in his hand was broken in half.

The boy sighed shakily and got up from the chair. That was enough knowledge for today, and probably for the next few days as well.

# # # # #

The screams sounded in his ears, some angry and furious, some mocking and full of malice, but all of them extremely loud and painful. He was really cold and he couldn't understand why, until the boy looked down and saw that he was wearing nothing but a pair of thin white trousers and a rope around his waist. The only thing louder than the screams was the sound of waves, fast and constantly moving and threatening to take over the shore and swallow the crowd standing nearby. Tommy felt something sharp touch his neck between the shoulder blades and knew what he should do. He moved closer to the water and jumped in.

It was all a blur of blue and black and white, his head spinning and his lungs burning from the lack of oxygen. Tommy fought the waves that were trying to crush him, struggling to move. Finally he saw a ray of light in one direction and reached for it, the waves somehow becoming more compliant and calming down. Triumphant, the boy swam upwards and broke the water surface, taking giant lungfulls of air and feeling all his muscles getting more and more tired.  
The boy saw someone on the shore right next to the water's edge and reached his hands for them:

"Phil! Phil, look, I made it, I'm alive!"

Tommy got closer to the shore only to see the older man take out his sword and point it at the boy, unsheathed. His eyes were cold and merciless.

"So you are a witch, Tommy. I expected better of you," said Phil and put his sword to the boy's neck just before...

# # # # #

Tommy screamed in horror and opened his eyes. It was dark in his room, probably 3am, an hour before the sunrise. The boy was breathing heavily and covered in sweat, his legs stuck in the sheets that were now all crumpled and messed up.

Suddenly Tommy heard his door open and tensed slightly, only to see Phil coming in and closer to the bed.

"What's wrong, Tommy? I heard a scream. Did you have a nightmare?"

Tommy wanted to say that only pussies were afraid of nightmares and he wasn't a pussy, but the words refused to leave his throat. The last moments of his dream flashed before his eyes: his father's hard gaze on him, the harsh words and the cold of metal on his skin... Phil reached out his hand to put it on Tommy's head.

The boy flinched away and cowered, hands covering his face in fear. Hurt flashed on the older man's face but he smoothed it out and said quietly, "It's alright, Tommy. You're okay. It was just a bad dream".

When the boy didn't relax, Phil let out a short sigh, turned around and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

After half a minute different footsteps sounded in the hall. Someone came close to Tommy's room but didn't walk in. The boy listened to the person's breath for a minute just to hear them say in Techno's voice, "Sleep, Tommy. I'll sit here for a while. It's not like I was tired."  
Tommy relaxed his muscles and tried to breathe normally. Techno knew what it was like to be different. While his brother was there, guarding him, nothing would ever happen to him. Technoblade wouldn't let him drown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the cw: Tommy remembers falling into a frozen lake as a child, and then has a dream about the witch trial he read about with himself as the accused. Phil puts a sword to his throat when he manages to swim up.
> 
> This was an experience to write. Let me know what you think!! Thank you for reading <3


	10. Decisions

Tommy got up in the morning, feeling well-rested. He remembered waking up sometime during the night but going back to sleep almost right after. He stayed in bed for a while, not really thinking about anything and just enjoying the slow and lazy awakening. After about 15 minutes he decided he was conscious enough to stand up and get ready for the day.

When he tried to open the door into the hall to go to the kitchen and have some breakfast the boy discovered that something was blocking it from the other side. 

Tommy thought Wilbur moved the old half-broken wardrobe that was standing in the hall next to the again to mess with him again so he just pushed harder until a gap appeared. He heard something shuffle outside and looked through the crack.

Tommy sniggered when he saw Techno lying on his side with his back to the wall and snoring peacefully. The man was wearing a thin shirt and a pair of soft short trousers and would have looked really vulnerable was it not for the massive tusks on his face and a dagger Techno was still somehow holding in one of his hands. He probably was blocking the door by leaning on it, and when Tommy opened it he slid to the side and fell over. Phil always said that Technoblade was extremely cautious during hunts and woke up at the slightest of noises and Tommy believed him since that just seemed like Techno, but now that the boy literally pushed his brother over with a door and he didn’t even stir up Tommy thought their father wasn’t all that honest. 

It was pretty chilly out there, so the boy moved back to his bed and grabbed a blanket.

Tommy opened the door a bit wider, more carefully now that he knew what was blocking it, and slipped through into the hallway. He covered Techno with a blanket he took and the man snuggled into it, content. Tommy wished Wilbur was here to see it, which, when he thought about it…

He tiptoed down the stairs as fast as he could and ran into Wilbur’s room. The man was still asleep in his bed.

“Will, wake up. I want to show you something,”

Will raised his head groggily and mouthed “What” in Tommy’s general direction. His hair was even messier than usual and his eyes were still half-closed.

”C’mon, get up, Wilbur, let’s go.”

Wilbur started to say something but closed his mouth halfway through. Apparently deciding it wasn’t worth the effort, Will got out of bed and waved his hand to indicate that he was ready to follow. He got his notebook and pencil on the way out, yawning widely.

When the brothers got up the stairs, Will took one look at the sleeping Techno and immediately shook off the last remains of sleep to laugh at the scene. After laughing for a bit he wrote “This is adorable! If only we could save this somehow to show him later”.

”Yeah, imagine his face. Priceless,” Tommy whispered, smiling widely.

They both knew why Techno was there, but none of them said a word. Sometimes you just needed to make fun of your sleeping brother and not think about the nightmares he was there to protect you from.

# # # # #

After breakfast Phil said that they’d already gotten rid of all their food supply, threatened them all with a forceful diet and took the still sleepy Techno to go to the marketplace. Tommy decided to go for a walk around town to clear his head and buy himself something sweet on the way back when Phil and Techno would already be home. He asked Will if he wanted to come with him and even generously offered to buy him something with his own pocket money, but the man refused.

”I want to get some peace and quiet once in a while when no one is home, especially if you’re also leaving,” Wilbur wrote with a smirk and barely dodged the apple core Tommy threw at his head.

Tommy was already pretty far from the house when a thought popped into his head. He patted his pockets and noticed that “Shit, I forgot the wallet.” He hurried back and was ready to shout a question about the wallet’s whereabouts at Will when he heard the almost nonexistent sounds of guitar chords. Will hasn’t played anything since he returned from the fateful hunt, so Tommy got pretty excited and was hesitant to disturb his brother. He was smiling when he got to the door to Will’s room, but that smile turned into a concerned frown when he looked in.

Will had his eyes shut tight and was barely touching the strings of the instrument. He was mouthing the lyrics, and listening closer Tommy recognized the song as the one that Wilbur sang to him just before leaving. He looked tense, the veins on his hands and forehead showing and his leg jerking from time to time. Suddenly the man struck the strings so hard one of them snapped and threw the guitar aside. Tommy flinched in surprise and watched as Will covered his face with his forearm. His hands were shaking and he was clearly trying to take everything under control, but it wasn’t really working. The boy swallowed: he wanted to come in and help, but he knew that he wasn’t very good with comforting words. This also seemed like something his brother wouldn’t want anyone to see, so Tommy sighed and walked into the hall and out of the house, his wallet forgotten.

Walking slowly along the road the boy started thinking. He didn’t know anything about the curse. Techno, Phil and Wilbur got through all the books on witchcraft in their house and probably some others and didn’t find anything, so there was no point in Tommy even trying. No one really understood anything about how that curse worked. The boy paused. Except there was someone who probably did.

Tommy turned on his heels and went back in the direction of the house determinately. He didn’t go too far, so soon he was already standing on the porch and knocking on the door. Tommy didn’t want to give himself any time to back out, so he was glad when the door opened after less than a minute.

”Hello… Tommy?”

”Niki, I thought about it and I decided. I want you to teach me,” Tommy said in one breath. In his head, that was it. No going back.

Niki looked surprised but pleased and opened the door wider, “I’m glad you made that choice, Tommy. Come on in.”

They walked into the kitchen and sat at the table in front of each other. Tommy felt nervous all of a sudden, as nervous as he hadn’t felt around his friend since his first lesson with her when he was 14. Niki seemed to notice his worry and her face softened in understanding.

”I know it’s a big step for you, Tommy. It seems like a whole new world, and it is!” she smiled radiantly and raised her hands to her face, “It’s a big beautiful world of new and exciting things.”

”You don’t have to talk to me like I’m a 5 year old, Niki,” the boy mumbled, relaxing slightly.

Niki giggled but continued, “But the important thing – in this new and maybe a bit scary world, you’re the one that stays the same. You’re still you, Tommy, no matter how silly that may sound. You don’t become someone completely new just because you learn some things. You’re a good person, and knowing you have magic won’t make you a bad one, just like it wouldn’t make a bad person a good one. Do you understand?”

Tommy sighed shakily and nodded.

Niki clapped her hands together and asked, “Well then, do you have any questions you want to ask right now?”

The boy wanted to ask about Will’s curse right away, but then he remembered something he’d been curious for a while, “What does Grow mean?”

”Oh, I’m glad you asked! Growth is what we magic users call the moment a witch comes into their powers. It can happen at any time, but is usually triggered by a strong emotion, like happiness or sadness or fear.”

”So, like a result of the power acquiring ritual?” Tommy asked, remembering the things he read in his family’s books. He shuddered when he thought about the sacrifice point of the whole thing. He just hoped the tree that triggered his Growth didn’t have an animal’s body buried somewhere under it.

Niki frowned in confusion, “What ritual? Where did you hear about that?”

”I read about it in the origins of magic book we have in the library, why?”

Niki laughed loudly and it was the boy’s turn to be confused.

”That book? I’ve seen it, and I’m pretty sure not even half of it is true. Don’t worry, Tommy, we don’t kill babies just to grow flowers, predict weather and communicate with animals. Powers are always there, just dormant and waiting for you to Grow into them. It doesn’t matter if anyone in your family is a witch; anyone can be a witch and not learn about it until well into one’s life. And the baby in witches’ family won’t necessarily have powers.”

Recognizing all those points as the direct opposites of what he'd seen in the book, Tommy raised his eyebrows and said, “So you’re telling me that was all bullshit.”

”Pretty much,” the woman confirmed, “Non-magic people don’t usually bother to fact-check things that show witches in a bad light, regardless of them calling their research “independent and unbiased". Anything else you want to know?”

Tommy remembered why he decided to come here in the first place and went for it, “Can a witch lift a curse another witch put on someone?”

Niki’s facial expression didn’t change; she probably already knew the boy was going to ask about it.

”Yes, it’s possible, although can be pretty hard to do. You need to know the nature of the curse, its range, the ways it affects the person and many other details. I want to help Wilbur too," Niki said with feeling, "but I can't learn all of that on my own. If you help me find out all the information, I'll be able to figure out the curse and try to get rid of it."

Tommy felt a weight lift from his shoulders. He understood there was a long road ahead, but just knowing that the damage can be fixed gave him enough hope to try. There was just one more thing he wanted to try out, now that the main issue had been discussed.

"When I touched that tree, I started growing flowers around me. Is it possible for me to learn to grow them... You know, on purpose?"

The woman smiled encouragingly, "Of course! It's actually pretty easy now that it's summer and the earth is warm and welcoming. What flowers do you want to grow?"

The boy thought for a moment and decided, "Dandelions."

Tommy and Niki went outside and into the small garden in the backyard. It was colorful and lively thanks to all the plants blooming prettily and butterflies flying from one blossom to another.

Niki led the boy to the empty flower bed in the back of the garden and sat on the ground with her legs tucked underneath her, Tommy doing the same. The woman took his hand by the wrist and put it over the dirt.

"Close your eyes and listen," Niki advised, "try to hear the energy of the earth flow, let it through your veins, and imagine giving it back to her with a new purpose. Picture the dandelion grow, bit by bit, all its life force under your control."

Tommy concentrated on the image of the dandelion inside his head. The sounds around him became louder but not overwhelmingly so, and he heard the inviting whisper of the ground. He felt warm all over and there was a tingling sensation in the palm of his hand, and then he heard Niki gasp a little and opened his eyes. In front of him on the flowerbed there was a bright yellow flower that didn't exist a mere minute ago. He looked at it and his eyes widened in triumph,

"Fuck yes, I did it! Look, Niki, I'm so powerful!"

"Yes, you are. That was actually pretty fast for your first time", his friend laughed next to him.

Tommy tried again and again, getting surprised and giddy every time he opened his eyes to see a brand new dandelion in front of him. Soon the whole flowerbed was full of them, and Tommy felt a little tired.

Tommy got his breath back, cleared his throat and asked,

"Do you by any chance know how to make flower crowns?"

# # # # #

Tommy had been standing near the apothecary for nearly half an hour when finally the door opened and a boy his age exited the building. Tommy came out of his little waiting spot and tapped the boy on the shoulder. He jumped and helped before turning around, breathing heavily,

"I'm sorry, you gave me quite a scare... Tommy?"

"Hey, Tubbo. Nice meeting you here," said the other boy awkwardly and scratched his neck with one hand, "I've actually got something for you"

He took his other hand from behind his back to reveal a flower crown made entirely of bright dandelions. It had some flaws here and there, but otherwise looked pretty nice.

"Here. I," Tommy paused for a second and swallowed, "I grew them myself".

Tubbo took the crown and immediately put it on his head, smiling widely.

"Thank you so much, it's lovely! I wish I could give you something too."

That was all the acceptance Tommy needed. He was afraid his new friend wouldn't understand or that he already didn't want anything to do with him, but the way he was touching the flowers on his head with shining eyes full of genuine wonder proved that Tommy'd been wrong about that.

"It's fine, really, I wanted to. Will you... Meet me at the clearing tomorrow? Usual time?"

"Sure!" Tubbo answered happily.

"See you tomorrow then," Tommy smiled.

"See you tomorrow!"

Tommy was walking back with lots of thoughts on his mind, but this time mostly happy ones. Suddenly he heard a distant thunder in the sky, and when he raised his head the boy saw dark clouds moving over the town. The first drop of water hit him right on the nose and he wrinkled it. It was raining, just like the Earth told him it would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've done some misdirecting last chapter, hope it didn't stop you from enjoying tho! I don't understand pacing, but I just can't wait to introduce the new characters and plot points, so bear with me here. 
> 
> Thank you everyone for leaving feedback, it's honestly amazing!! Reading comments makes my mornings :)


	11. Secrets

”That’s all you can do?” Tommy shouted playfully and jumped over a root that sprung under his feet. 

Tubbo slapped an old tree he was standing next to three more times, and another portion of roots slithered underground in direction of the boy. Tommy stomped his foot down and rose over them on a dirt pedestal. He snapped his fingers and the roots withered and stopped moving, now sat deeply in the ground.

”I’m trying, Tommy, give me another chance!” the other boy whined from afar.

”Fine, but this is the last time,” Tommy said mock-serious and stepped back to the ground level. 

He put his hand on the ground and scratched, whispering, “This time it’s gonna work”. The ground under him shook and he nearly fell over but managed to stay on his feet, unlike Tubbo who got knocked off by a moving lump of dirt. Tommy cheered from where he was still squatting down. The ground started cracking and trembling around the other boy, so he grabbed onto one of the fragments and whispered something unintelligible. Tommy hurried to raise his hand in the air but was a second too late: dozens of vines sprouted and circled around his hand and squeezed tightly, pinning him in place just to spring to life once more and throw him over onto his left side with the boy’s arm stretching painfully. He stomped his leg half in pain, half in an attempt to cause the earth to move again, but couldn’t concentrate any energy because of the burning sensation in his shoulder. Meanwhile Tubbo got up and breathed deeply, his chest moving heavily. He saw Tommy’s attempts at getting himself out and whistled loudly. The other boy groaned in annoyance, “Not those stupid things again…”

A swarm of bees appeared near Tommy, buzzing threateningly but not trying to attack him.

”Don’t insult the bees just because you’re bad at witchcraft!” Tubbo yelled, still breathless and standing with his hands on his knees.

”This fucking hurts…” Tommy said through gritted teeth and then yelled back, “Okay, I give up! Take your weed off of me, my arm’s gonna fucking snap in half.”

Tubbo, who was shaking his fists in celebration, gasped and touched the ground again to make the vines release his friend and shouted, “Sorry, my bad!”

He then whistled again and all the bees flew in opposite directions from each other, leaving Tommy to sit up and stretch the muscles in his injured arm. 

”Great job, guys!” Niki said when the boys came up to her, clapping her hands.

”I won! Niki, I did it,” Tubbo bragged to the woman.

”You didn’t win shit, Tubbo, I just went easy on you,” Tommy huffed. He was still smiling, clearly proud of his friend.

”Alright, now to the details: Tommy, your non-contact magic is improving, well done! Also, congratulations on getting the earthquake range right, I told you it’s possible not to make giant holes in the ground in the process”, Tommy sighed in annoyance at being proved wrong but nodded. Niki continued, “You need to try getting things done verbally though, your body parts may not be always available.”

”Tubbo, your vine attacks are getting really precise, good job! You should work on controlling your strength so you don’t break Tommy’s bones by accident.”

”My bones are very strong, but Niki does have a point,” the boy butted in, rubbing his shoulder and wincing slightly.

”Sorry again,” Tubbo said sheepishly, looking apologetic, “Are you sure nothing’s broken? I’ve had my fair share of broken bones, it’s not pleasant.”

”Yeah, I’m pretty sure, don’t worry about it. I should probably go home now, I’m getting really hungry.”

Niki immediately went out of her teacher mode and rushed both of the boys to go home and get some lunch, so everyone went to the edge of the forest and said their goodbyes, all going in opposite directions.

It had been almost a month since the day Tommy agreed to Niki’s witchcraft lessons and started hanging out with Tubbo again. From the outside nothing really changed: it’s been quiet for the witch hunter family since everyone collectively decided Wilbur needed more time to get used to his curse. Communication was important for the hunts, so he, Techno and Phil spent a lot of time perfecting their system of signs. They already had one before for extreme circumstances but now that it was the only way for Will to communicate during fights they decided it really wasn’t enough. Tommy learned and practiced all of them too, in case of an emergency. Nothing changed about the curse itself: Tommy wrote down everything for Niki’s research, but there honestly wasn’t much to write. He went to study with Niki every working day, bitched about homework to his brothers, trained with weapons and had an overall uneventful August.

But the other side of it was an absolute whirlwind. Witchcraft was… interesting, to say the least. After a week of learning the basics of channeling energy and all the theoretical ways a witch could manipulate everything around them, Niki decided that training practical magic with Tubbo would benefit both boys. Tubbo never had a training partner his age, so the idea of practicing with his friend really excited him. It was really awkward for a while because Tommy didn’t have a lot of skill and also started screaming in glee every time he succeeded in doing something new, but he caught up pretty fast and soon they were having mock duels with Niki watching and guiding them. Tommy hasn’t felt that powerful and proud since he defeated Wilbur in a fight for the first time. There were also no weird rituals and animal corpses, which was a huge relief.

Tommy got home and entered the kitchen to find his whole family there, which was unusual at this time of day. But even more unusual was a person sitting next to Techno on Tommy’s chair and laughing his head off, with Techno actually laughing along. It was a man with short black hair and dark skin who was wearing a long blue coat. He was holding an apple and kept throwing it from one hand to another, completely relaxed and at home.

”And who the hell are you?” Tommy asked unceremoniously, folding his hands on his chest.

Everyone looked over at him and Phil and Wilbur actually chuckled, the former covering it up with a cough and the latter not bothering since nobody could hear it anyway. Techno just raised an eyebrow and said, “Yeah, that was very mature of you, Tommy. If you must know, this is my old friend.”  
Tommy’s eyes widened comically and he exclaimed, “You have friends?!”

This time Phil didn’t bother covering his laughter up, and Wilbur actually hit his fist on the table a couple of times. The stranger seemed unbothered throughout the whole ordeal. He got up from the table slowly and stood before Tommy, rocking back and forth on his heels. The man smirked and reached his hand out to the boy.

”Nice to meet you, I’m Skeppy.”

Tommy looked at the stranger suspiciously but took his hand to shake it, only to hiss in surprise at the slightly painful shock form the touch. He didn’t release the man’s hand though, and he saw his smirk grow wider.

Skeppy looked Tommy up and down appraisingly and hummed thoughtfully, “And you must be… the annoying child?”

Someone at the table behind them started coughing violently. Tommy jerked his hand out of the stranger’s grasp and opened and closed his mouth indignantly.

”It’s Tommy, you moron. Just because you’re friends with Techno it doesn’t mean you can say shit like that! Because guess what? He’s my brother, so who’s side is he gonna be on, huh?”

Techno, who was examining his nails with no sign of concern on his face, said calmly, “Definitely Skeppy’s. Where do you think he got that description from?”

The Skeppy guy chuckled and said, not taking his eyes off of Tommy’s face, “Go on, run to your room. Let the actual adults talk.” 

Tommy fumed and stumbled over all the swear words he wanted to say at the same time, but in the end the boy turned on his heel and went up the stairs, his traitor father’s laughter following him all the way.

# # # # #

“Knock knock, can I come in?” a voice sounded from behind the closed door to Tommy’s room half an hour after the conversation in the kitchen.

Tommy, who still was furious about the situation, got even angrier, “You again? Fuck you, Sappy or whoever you are. And I’m not a child!” 

The man sighed audibly, “Okay, I’m sorry. We started off wrong. Your brother and I are good friends, I don’t want to come between you two or anything. I just wanted to talk.” 

After a short pause Skeppy added, “Techno talks a lot about you, actually.”

”Oh, about how annoying I am?” Tommy wasn’t gonna lie, it stung a bit – not a lot since he knew Techno wasn’t serious about it most of the time, but it wasn’t pleasant that Techno may have insulted him with his friends behind his brother’s back.

”No, well, not all the time. He said you’re getting really good with a sword and that you’re really funny sometimes.”

Tommy’s head turned into the direction of the door, “Really? Techno said that?” It was pretty hard to believe, far harder than the notion of the man making fun of him. Making fun could be affectionate in its own way, but actually praising him? Tommy didn’t think he heard that before.

”Yeah!” Skeppy’s earnest voice came from the hallway, “Let me in so I can tell you more about it.” 

Tommy knew it was an obvious bait, but the desire for compliments from his older brother outweighed the common sense. He stood up and opened the door, saying snappishly, “Come in. But make it quick, I’m really busy, you know.”

”Of course, of course,” the man smirked, satisfied, and came inside.

”So? What else did he tell about me?” Tommy asked impatiently.

Skeppy fell down on the bed and put his hands under his head, getting comfortable on the blanket. 

”Oh, just the normal brother stuff. How he’s proud of you and worries about you getting hurt, that kinda thing.”

Tommy swallowed, trying to hold back a smile. Was this true? He hoped it was true. Techno never said that he was proud of him, and the thought of it happening made the boy unreasonably happy. The man continued, “But you know what he probably woudn’t be proud of?”

Tommy frowned. And he was only just starting to forget that this guy was horrible.

”What is there not to be proud of in me? I’m literally perfect,” he said in an unshakable tone.

”Something like the fact that you’re hiding being a witch from him. Yeah, that sounds pretty bad, doesn’t it.”

Tommy felt like he got kicked in the stomach. How did he know? Did Skeppy see him, Tubbo and Niki in the forest? Tommy started panicking but tried to cover it up, 

“What are you talking about? I’m literally going to be a witch hunter in three years. I hate witches so much, why would you even think about it? You’re so fucking weird, man, I can’t believe it.”

Skeppy laughed mischievously and sat up. 

”Oh, please. I can smell a witch from a while away. Demon privileges, you know.”

Demon..? What was this guy on about? Niki did say something about “demons and other sweet creatures” in passing, but Tommy thought it was a weird witch inside joke.

The man raised his hand in the air, snapped his fingers and looked at one of Tommy’s notebooks. At that exact moment its cover caught on fire and started burning brightly, sending a thin pillar of smoke into the air.

Tommy yelled, “Are you out of your damn mind?!” and waved his hand. The air in the room tightened and turned into a wind that blew out the thankfully small fire on the boy’s desk.

”And someone said he wasn’t a witch, guess that was a lie,” Skeppy clicked his tongue in pretend disapproval. 

Tommy wasn’t in the mood for this.

”You set my book on fire! And what do you mean Techno wouldn’t be proud of me. As if he would’ve been proud of you if he knew you’re an actual hell spawn. Why are you even talking to him?”

”And why are you?”

”We’re a little different here, don’t you think? Techno’s my brother, I live in the same house as him!” 

”Well, and I’m his friend. Here’s your answer. And I wasn’t judging you or anything,” Skeppy said and got up from the bed, “I was just making an observation. I’m not going to tell anyone about your secret, I’m not a snitch, so you shouldn’t worry about that.”

He walked out of the room and looked at Tommy again, “It was nice meeting you. Hope we get to talk again! We’ll probably see each other on Samhain if someone actually invited you into the Coven. Bye, have fun with witchcraft for dummies.”

The man walked through the hallway and down the stairs, but Tommy paid him no mind. His last words were playing in the boy’s head.

What the hell was the Coven?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn, I'm so bad at fighting scenes. I want to say I'm never writing those again, but the plot,,,,, I'll just hope I magically get better, I guess.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the chapter! The response to my work had been so nice, thank you, you wonderful people<3


	12. Birds

Tommy was sitting on the grass-covered shore near the river, Tubbo by his side. The air was still warm since September had just begun so the boys had taken their shoes off and put their legs in the water, swinging them back and forth. They took turns making small whirlpools for the other to throw pebbles into as a game. Controlling water was actually pretty tricky, so it was a nice practice for them. Thankfully that elemental distinction he read about was not true at all. Magic users did say “water magic” or “earth magic”, but it was purely for simplicity. Tubbo and Niki had a good laugh about it, so Tommy wasn’t very upset about being clueless. But the woman explained that they probably thought so because of the way most witches felt more comfortable using only one type of magic. It was a skill that could be trained, so a lot of magic users found something that fit them the best and kept improving in that field. They still could use every “type” of witchcraft, just preferred not to most of the time. 

”I’m trying to use everything equally because I like the way all magic feels, but I grow a lot of flowers and fruits for sale so am naturally more skilled at it,” Niki told Tommy when he asked about it.

Tommy was at their game so far. He still was a little shaken up after his conversation with Skeppy the other day and it was nice to relax and just throw rocks in the water with his best friend.

The boy didn’t think he’d get to actually call someone that. Best friend. He thought it sounded great.

”You’re my best friend, Tubbo,” Tommy informed the other boy.

”Oh, you’re my best friend too! Shit, missed another one. Hold on, make it bigger, I literally can’t see it from here,” Tubbo answered holding a handful of pebbles.

”Just say you’re bad at it, no need to make excuses,” the younger boy replied smugly, but complied and the whirlpool got a little bigger with a wave of his hand.

Tommy wondered if Tubbo knew about that Coven thing. Neither Niki nor he ever talked about it, so maybe the man was just messing with him. He seemed like the type. And what about demons?

”Tubbo, what are your thoughts on demons?”

Tubbo looked surprised at the question but paused throwing his rocks to think. “I don’t know, really. They’re okay, I think. You can’t usually say if someone is a demon unless they show or tell you themselves, but I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to one. I saw a couple at the last Samhain but wasn’t too keen on coming up to them. Why?”

”Wait, Samhain? Isn’t it that thing the Coven organizes?” Tommy made a shot in the dark and seemed to strike dead center.

Tubbo smiled brightly and turned to look at his friend. ”Yeah, it is. Did Niki already tell you? It’s in less than two months, I’d love for you to come with us, it’s really fun!” the boy’s eyes widened slightly and he backed down, “I mean, if you’re going to join the Coven, that is. It’s perfectly fine if you don’t want to!”  
So Tubbo and Niki definitely knew about and actually were a part of that Coven thing. Tommy wondered why nobody told him. If Tubbo was telling him about it now, that meant it wasn’t that big of a secret. Did Niki think he was still a threat because of his family and his training as a witch hunter? Tubbo still didn’t know who his relatives were, although for a much different reason now that the boy knew about his best friend being a witch, so it made sense. Tommy felt a little sick at the thought. He cared a lot for Niki and now that he knew witches weren’t as bad as everyone painted them to be he would never harm his friends just to get recognition from his father and brothers. He wasn’t that selfish and self-centered, regardless of what some people thought.

”She didn’t tell me anything, actually. Someone else did. Why haven’t you ever mentioned it? This seems like a big deal.” Tommy tried not to sound accusatory but couldn’t really help it. 

Tubbo dropped all his pebbles and clasped both his hands over his mouth. “Oh no, Niki’s going to murder me.”

So it really was Niki’s idea, and she even asked Tubbo not to say anything. This was really disappointing but Tommy kind of saw where she was coming from.

The other boy continued, “She asked me not to tell anything until you get used to all the witching stuff. Niki wanted to explain it to you soon, she prepared this whole speech and everything and now I fucked it up.”

”She did? That’s actually pretty thoughtful." Tommy felt much better after his friend’s explanation. That meant that Niki didn't think he would harm her or Tubbo and was actually going to tell him everything eventually, and that was what mattered. "But what do you think? I promise I won’t tell Niki you told me, I’m just really curious.”

”I don’t know if I should, it would influence your decision that should be completely independent,” Tubbo said clearly repeating a certain someone’s words, “plus, Niki would definitely know.”

Tommy thought about it. Yes, she would immediately know if he lied about this.

”Alright. But just so you know, I’m not that easily influenced.”

The boys stayed at the river for a while, just talking about nothing until Tubbo threw a rock a bit too close and splashing Tommy by accident, which started a full on water fight. Soon it got pretty cold and a chilly wind started blowing, so the friends decided to rush home. Completely soaked through and starting to freeze, Tommy and Tubbo decided to take a shortcut and got off the path. They moved vines out of their way to get to their warm houses faster, unable to speak because of their teeth chattering. Suddenly Tommy heard the sound of someone’s footsteps and turned his head to look. There, behind the bushes, he saw it: a person in a long black cloak standing right next to a thin tree that seemed far younger than all the other trees around it. It looked like it was glowing. The tree became taller under the hands of the person, its glow brighter and more visible.

”Not another one of those…” Tommy muttered and yelled out, “Hey y-you! What are you d-doing there?”

The figure turned around promptly. It wore a big hood and its face was hidden in its shadow. After a moment it took its hands off of the tree’s trunk and started fleeing. Tubbo started saying something, but Tommy didn’t have time to listen. He needed to know what that tree actually was and why it was the thing that triggered his Growth. The boy started running after the unknown person but then remembered he could do something better. He sat down on one knee and put his hand on the ground, not taking his eyes off his target. Vines shouted out of the ground near the cloaked figure and wrapped around its legs. The person nearly fell on their face but managed to stay up. Tommy hot up and was ready to confront them but suddenly the figure started getting smaller until it was the size of… a bird? The cloak fell in the dirt, the vines now lying uselessly under it having nothing to hold on to, and from under it flew a big brown-colored crow. It raised over the tree tops and disappeared from the boy’s sight.

Tommy cursed quietly, watching helplessly as his one clue literally flew away from him, and didn’t notice Tubbo running up to him, already out of breath. 

”What… happened? Who was that and why were we chasing them?” Tubbo asked, confused.

”That dickhead was growing a tree over there,” Tommy pointed in the direction of it, “that looked just like the one I touched in August. You remember the one.”

Tubbo’s eyes widened. “We need to tell Niki. Something’s really wrong with those trees.”

Tommy frowned and turned to look at the other boy. “Why? I mean, they’re really fucking weird because trees aren’t supposed to glow, but the one I touched seemed pretty harmless.”

Tubbo shook his head and said, “That time I tried to stop you from touching that tree, remember? I’ve also seen it for the first time that day and felt its pull, but then I noticed that everything around it seemed… dying, as if it got its energy sucked out of it.”

Tommy tried to recall that day. “Oh, I actually remember something like that. Before I started growing poppies around, there wasn’t any green grass, only some shitty yellow one.”

Tubbo nodded, “Exactly. That seemed really suspicious so I managed to snap out of it, but then I saw something that really convinced me that tree was evil. A small flock of sparrows sat on it and suddenly started withering up and becoming smaller and smaller, until there was nothing left of them.” The boy took a deep breath and turned away from Tommy, “I went away to warn Niki about it, but then I saw you coming to the clearing. I was afraid it was going to happen to you too. Just like with those poor birds.”

Tubbo rubbed his shoulder, still not looking at his friend. He curled in on himself, because of the cold or the bad memories or both, it was hard to say.

Tommy stepped closer to the boy and patted his back awkwardly, the picture of himself ending up just like the sparrows almost real before his eyes, “It’s okay now, Tubbo. I’m here and won’t be touching any weird trees with a barge pole, trust me on that. Now let’s go, I’m going to freeze my arse off. We’ll go to Niki’s and tell her about that tree right now.”

Tubbo nodded and together they walked in the direction of Niki’s house. Tommy was still thinking about that tree and the person that planted it. His teacher already told the boy about shape-shifters but it was the first Tommy’d seen, so he was still shocked. But that wasn’t the important thing, since she said those were pretty normal, albeit really talented witches. What worried Tommy was the tree. The stranger bolted when they noticed being watched, which only proved that they were up to no good and didn’t want anyone to see. But why when he touched it he felt so good, but those birds and the plants around it seemed to suffer and die? There were a lot of questions on Tommy’s mind so he was surprised when he finally looked around and saw that were no longer in the forest but instead standing in front of Niki’s house.

Tubbo knocked on the door; he was still shaking from the cold and, as Tommy noticed in concern, coughing slightly. The door soon opened and the owner of the house appeared on the porch.

”Tubbo, Tommy, I didn’t expect… Why are you so wet? You’re going to catch a cold, come in, quickly!”

Niki rushed the boys inside, but before she started asking them even more questions Tubbo said, “Niki, we have something important to tell you. The magic tree is back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I just wanted to say that I probably won't be posting till the 2d of January. I may post a chapter tomorrow, but definitely not for the three days after that. Then I'll try to go back to my daily uploading schedule! 
> 
> I was also thinking about working on a time traveler!Ghostbur au, which I may or may not write, so you can tell me what you think about that. This work will be finished regardless tho, so don't worry :)
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the chapter, thank you again for kudos and all the amazing comments, you're poggers<3


	13. News

While Tommy and Tubbo were telling Niki about what happened, messing up words and interrupting each other with the older boy sometimes stopping to wait out a coughing fit, the woman’s facial expression became more and more concerned. They moved to the kitchen halfway through the story where Niki gave the boys some blankets and made tea to warm them up, looking periodically at Tubbo with obvious worry in her eyes. After the tale was finished and the friends were sipping at their warm drinks, Niki shook her head and said,

”I’ve never heard about anything like that. I’m not sure if it’s only dangerous to plants and animals or if people are affected too, maybe Tommy’s case was an exception,” she looked at the teen, relief and fear for him mixing deep in her eyes, ”but it’s bad either way and I’m not sure we want to find that out for ourselves.”

The woman stood up from the chair she was sitting on and told the boys, “I’m going to write a letter to my friend. They know much more about witchcraft than me, maybe they’ll be able to explain what’s happening in our forest. I didn’t want to do that before since I hoped it was a one time thing, but now I really have no choice. I’ll be in the office, yell if you need anything.”

Niki walked out of the room and Tommy turned to sniffing Tubbo.

”Do you know who she’s talking about? Do you think they’ll actually know something?”

Tubbo shook his head, “No, she’s mentioned them before but never said their name. But if they’re friends with Niki, I trust them to be a good person.”

The boy shrugged and took another sip of his tea.   
Tommy agreed about the good part, but he was still curious. There were already two witches in his day to day life, so every mention of others got him nervous and excited at the same time. What if Tubbo and Niki were the only nice ones and he got lucky enough to stumble across both of them? No, that just sounded ridiculous. But he still wanted to meet more magic users, so naturally he was interested in this mysterious friend that “knew much more about witchcraft” than Niki did. Since Tommy thought his teacher was very knowledgeable on the subject of magic, he wondered how much that friend of hers probably knew if Niki wrote to them for advice.

Soon the boys’ cups were empty and Niki came back from her office with a letter in her hand.

”C’mon, you both need to get home and change into dry clothes. I’ll walk Tubbo home and get the letter sent on the way back. Will you be okay to get home on your own?” the woman looked at Tommy questioningly.

”Of course! My house is really close, plus I’m not the one coughing my lungs out.”

As if to prove Tommy’s point, Tubbo started coughing violently.

”Oh dear. Let’s get you home, Tubbo, I hope you have some cough medicine there.”

Soon everyone said their goodbyes and went their own ways, with the younger teen returning home by himself.

# # # # #

”What the hell happened to you? Was there a rain I somehow didn’t notice?” greeted Phil, letting the shaking boy into the house and closing the door behind him.

”No, I… slipped and fell into the river.” Tommy lied.

He nearly told his whole family about Tubbo by accident. That would have been pretty bad, what with the other boy not knowing who his family was and his brothers being nosy little shits.

”What a loser. I told you you need to work on your balance,” commented Techno from his room. Tommy looked through the open doorway and saw Techno sitting on his bed with his hair half braided and Wilbur, smiling and holding a piece of paper with a single word ‘agreed’.

”Oh, fuck all of you, honestly. I may be dying of hypothermia right now and all you know is make fun of me. Typical.” Tommy hmphed, looking at his brothers laughing at him.

”Then go and change your clothes instead of complaining, idiot.” Techno commented.

”Oh, now he’s also insulting me. Thanks for support, dickhead.”

Phil sighed and came up to Tommy, “Son, we love and care about you, now please go change your clothes before you get fucking sick and we have to take care of you. Better?”

”Thank you, Phil,” the teen turned to Techno and Will to see them both not paying attention anymore.

Tommy understood that arguing with them was a waste of air. Wilbur couldn’t even talk out loud! And he was feeling the cold getting to him, so the boy decided to abandon the conversation and got to his room to change.

When Techno knocked on his door to call him down for dinner half an hour later, Tommy was warming up in his bed and finishing his homework from last week.

’I see you’re alive. I’m glad!’ was the first thing Wilbur wrote and smiled like a loon when Tommy came down the stairs.

”Thank you, but I hoped it would piss you off.”

”Shush, children, can we have a nice peaceful dinner for once? And I have an announcement to make, and I won’t till I’m done with my food. This family is a nightmare…” Phil sighed and dug into his dinner.

Tommy looked at Techno and Wilbur and saw them exchanging glances as well. They both looked at the teen and shrugged at the same time, showing that they didn’t know any more than he did. With that they started eating their food quieter than usual, curious about what Phil had to say. It wasn’t completely without any jabs, of course, but it was overall a much calmer affair. ‘Phil must be on cloud nine right now,’ Tommy thought, putting the last piece of potato in his mouth.

”Alright, here it is,” the older man said after pushing his empty plate away, “There’s a job for us. A bit farther than the last one, so we’ll spend more time on the road, but I thought we’ve had enough of doing nothing. The most interesting part – I decided that everyone’s going to come.”

”Everyone? Does this mean Tommy’ll be alone in the house for more than a week? He’ll burn it down in an hour, Phil,” Techno told the man.

”Did I stutter, Techno? By everyone I meant the whole family. Tommy’s coming with us.”

Tommy, who was already thinking about which of his brothers’ things he was going to mess with while they were gone and wasn’t paying much attention, almost choked on his potato and swallowed it with difficulty.

”Me?” he asked after coughing for half a minute.

”You know some other Tommy?” Phil smiled, “You still won’t be hunting, no changes there, but the job seems pretty simple so it’ll just be like a family outing.”

Oh, that made sense. He still was really excited even though it was just a short trip to a nearby town. He would get to see what it’s like while going on the job. The only problem Tommy had with all of this: the actual witch hunting that would be happening while he just sat in the tavern doing nothing. What if it was a misunderstanding and the witch did nothing wrong? And if it was, would the teen be strong enough to help them?

He still would be joining his family, that wasn't something he was going to refuse, but for Tommy it definitely wasn't going to be just a nice family trip.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a small filler chapter I wanted to get out of the way. It's New Year's tomorrow, gonna be celebrating so no update for sure, I was just pretty bored today.
> 
> Also I'm almost done with my dream smp Tommy&Techno one-shot about them speedrunning brotherhood, gonna post it in maybe two days so keep an eye out if you're interested :) Hope you have a good day<3


	14. Preparations

After telling the brothers about the upcoming trip, Phil asked Techno and Wilbur to stay to discuss the details of the hunt and sent Tommy to his room to pack everything he’d need for the journey. Tommy tried to protest since they were leaving in a day and so had plenty of time to get ready, but the man just stared at him for a minute while the boy ranted and there was no arguing with the silent judgmental stare. Sighing dejectedly, he went up to his room. He thought about leaving the door open and listening in, but in the end decided against it. Someone would tell him if there was something crucial for him to know. Phil said it was a simple job so it probably wasn’t anything that interesting. Tommy did want to know what the witch had done, but at the same time he really didn’t want to deal with the guilt that would inevitably come with that knowledge regardless of how bad the crime was. 

The boy lifted the lid of the chest where he kept all his clothes and threw half of them on the bed in a heap to choose from. There wasn’t that much of them, just a couple of shirts with sleeves of different lengths, about the same number of trousers, a warm woolen winter coat and a less warm leather vest for when it was chilly. They were going away for about two weeks, so Tommy decided not to take that many things. He took an old spare shirt, a good one for going around town and a pair of nice trousers he never really wore. The teen also prepared the clothes to wear while on the road – a comfortable shirt, a neckerchief and his only autumn vest. He decided the trousers he was wearing now would do and didn’t bother taking other ones from the chest. Tommy put everything he didn’t need back in its place not bothering to fold anything and dusted his hands off in satisfaction. Now he just needed to add a couple of things and put everything into the bag to be done with packing. Why was Phil so insistent on him getting this done a day in advance? Adults were just ridiculous.

Tommy moved the chest to the side and put his hand in the hole behind it. There he kept the important things like the dagger that Phi gave him on his 15th birthday, the pouch with his pocket money and, as of late, a journal where he wrote down all the facts he found interesting and useful about witchcraft. The boy took out the weapon and the money pouch and threw them into the bag as well, now officially ready to head out.

About twenty minutes later someone knocked on Tommy’s door and he mumbled “Come in” from where he was lying on the bed, already half asleep. A moment later Techno walked in and looked at the boy questioningly.

”Are you done packing?” the man asked, leaning against the door jamb.

”Yeah. You’re saying it like it’s this huge task when it literally took me 5 minutes.”

Techno glanced meaningfully at the half-filled bag and said, “Really? Phil asked if you’re sure you packed socks, underwear, medicine and, most importantly, your homework?”

Tommy groaned and rolled onto his other side, away from his brother.

”I’ll finish tomorrow, I’m already halfway done. I’m sleeping, see? Now go away.”

“Alright, Tommy, you can do that tomorrow or you can do it now while I tell you about the job we got. You can absolutely wait until we’re on the road to hear about it, it’s your call not like I care.”

The man was turning to exit the room when Tommy got up from the bed and asked him to wait. The teen knew his curiosity would murder him in cold blood if he let this opportunity slip away and had to wait almost two whole days to learn about the hunt, all of his moral conflict forgotten. He went to the table where he kept his books and textbooks and started looking for the ones he would need, complaining under his breath.

Techno returned to his spot in the doorway and started talking.

“Phil said the letter was pretty short since there’s not a lot to the story. Three young men were found dead in their beds, their bodies covered in roses with green petals. The witch is known: it was a woman in her forties, short, medium build, long blond hair. She tried to flee and was injured but attacked the guards and is now hiding somewhere in the nearby forest. It’s surrounded but people are afraid of actually going there and searching for the witch, so that’s where we come in.”

She murdered three people. That definitely wasn’t something that could be shrugged off easily. Tommy swallowed and paused with a ball of socks in his hands. He knew not all witches were like that – Niki and Tubbo weren’t, he wasn’t – but it was still terrifying to think that he had something in him that could kill that easily and decorate it with flowers afterward. 

Techno understood his silence in his own way and said in quiet, but confident voice, “It’ll be fine, Tommy. We dealt with witches crazier than that, and no one will let her get even close to you. Like Phil said, it’ll be just a fun trip with a hunt on the side. We all missed the job, and Will needs something to cheer him up.” The man craned his neck and looked into the teen’s bag. “I see you’re almost done here, I’ll leave you to it. Goodnight, Tommy.”

”Goodnight, Techno.” Tommy replied on autopilot and watched his brother walk out of the room with absent eyes.

The way Techno talked about missing the hunts made shivers run down Tommy’s spine. Would he be just another hunted witch in his family’s eyes? Would any of them hesitate before shooting an arrow through him? The boy shook his head in frustration. Of course they would, they called him his brothers and father, it couldn’t be just empty words. They cared for him in their own way, and while they didn’t know nobody had any reason to get hurt.  
That night it took him a long time to fall asleep.

# # # # #

Tommy knew where Tubbo lived since he’d walked with him one time he hadn’t felt like going home, so when the other boy didn’t show up at their clearing he decided to pay him a visit. After missing a couple of turns and going in a completely wrong direction once, the teen finally came close to his friend’s house. He’d never been inside before so was a bit nervous. He wondered if he would meet Tubbo’s family now.

Tommy’d asked him one time if his parents knew about his magic. Tubbo looked to the side and mumbled something that sounded like “Not yet, but I’ll tell them. Some day.” The boy then asked Tommy about his family so he had to quickly change the subject and they never spoke about their relatives again.

Tommy knocked on the door and was really surprised when it opened and he saw Niki standing in the doorway.

”Hello, Tommy! Are you also here to check on Tubbo?” Niki said with a smile and let the boy in.

“Check on Tubbo? What happened to him? He didn’t meet me at our usual place so I wondered if something was wrong.”

“He got sick after yesterday. Nothing too bad,” the woman added after noticing the bewildered expression on the teen’s face, “his temperature is a bit higher than normal and he’s coughing, but nothing a long rest can’t fix.”

They walked through the hall and entered a room almost at the very end of it.

”Hey, Tubbo, look who’s here to visit you.” Niki said with a smile and walked closer to Tubbo’s bed.

Tommy looked around: the room was smaller and tidier than his, probably because he kept most of his notes and books at his workplace for convenience. There only decorations were the map of the lands on the wall and a couple of child’s drawings nailed to the wardrobe’s door. Tommy doubted Tubbo drew them himself, so it was probably a present from his little sister the boy talked about from time to time before the witchcraft conversation.

”Tommy, hi! Sorry I didn’t come to meet you today, I’m not,” he coughed loudly, “in the best shape right now.”

”It’s fine, I’ll forgive you but only because I’m such a great friend.”

Tommy came up to the older boy and touched his forehead only to jerk his hand back with a curse. “Shit, you’re like a furnace!” the boy looked over to Niki, “How do we make him colder? His blood is going to boil at this rate.”

She giggled and replied, “It’s okay, his body is fighting for him right now. It’s not that bad, I promise.”

Tubbo nodded his head wisely. “Yes, it can be much worse. You don’t want to know how really sick people feel like to the touch, it’s a literal fire.”

Tommy chuckled nervously. “Alright, let’s not talk about that, I don’t like fire and sick people. Except you, Tubbo, just don’t be sick for too long please.” He paused for a second and continued. “Actually, you can be sick for a while longer. I’m going to leave the town for a couple of weeks.”

Tubbo’s face fell while Niki looked at him curiously. “Where are you going?”

”Just a family trip. My father got a job in another town and is taking me and my brothers with him.” Tommy answered, pointing subtly at Tubbo to let Niki know he can’t give too many details with the other boy in the room.

”Anyway,” he looked at Tubbo again, “how are you feeling now?”

Tubbo seemed satisfied with the explanation Tommy gave and said, “I’m feeling way better than I did in the morning. My head hurts a bit and I’m really sleepy, but other than that I’m completely fine.”

Niki chimed in, “You’re probably sleepy because of the medicine, it has a really calming effect. Don’t mind us, Tubbo, you need to sleep to get better faster. Me and Tommy will be in the kitchen, just call me if you need anything, but do try to rest.”

”Alright, I am,” the teen yawned widely, “quite tired. Bye, Tommy, thanks for checking up on me.”

”Bye, Tubbo, and it’s nothing. Hope you get well before I come back.”

Tubbo smiled and closed his eyes, burrowing further into the covers. Tommy and Niki went out of the room, the woman closing the door silently behind them. When they got to the kitchen, Niki let her concern about Tommy’s words show.

”Why is Phil taking you with them? I thought he didn’t want you to hunt until you register officially.”

Tommy winced and answered, “I’m not going to hunt, Phil confirmed it just in case that wasn’t clear. He said the job was simple so he just wanted us to go all together, a family trip of sorts.”

Niki shook her head in wonder. “Phil has a strange idea of what a nice family trip is like.”

”Well, hunting magic users for money is probably a great bonding experience for him, Techno and Wilbur.” Tommy commented, letting a touch of bitterness and worry come through in his words.

Niki sighed and put her hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Tommy, remember that it’s their job and that it needs to be done. I know your family, and I respect and care for them very much. I know they wouldn’t hurt innocent people. Did they tell you what the job was?”

”Yes, Techno did. A witch killed three people and hid somewhere in the forest. They were hired to track her down.”

Niki gasped a little but pulled herself together. “See? She’s dangerous, Tommy. Not because she can do magic or because she killed those people using magic, but because she did something really bad. Magic is just a tool, Tommy, don’t ever forget that. It doesn’t dictate who you are as a person. We all choose our own paths. I don’t know the reasons that woman had for doing what she did, but I’m almost completely sure magic didn’t make her do it.”

”I know. Thank you, Niki. I need to get home now, we’re going out early tomorrow.”

Niki smiled gently. “Of course, Tommy. Be safe and have a nice journey. I’ll take care of Tubbo while you’re gone.”

The boy returned home to find everyone already asleep, the house completely silent and their bags ready near the door. Tommy felt like he wasn’t at all ready even though he wasn’t going to actually take part in the hunting, but he remembered Niki’s words and felt just a tiny bit better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back to the regular schedule! Happy New Year, everyone, I hope 2021 will be at least a bit better than 2020.
> 
> Thanks for your support, you're all lovely<3


	15. A Fateful Thief

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter now has some [lovely fanart](https://twitter.com/TasiLassie/status/1346282709782564864) drawn by chocosuffle on twitter (VeggyStick on here).  
> Thank you so much<3

When three days later Tommy and the hunters finally got to their destination, the boy was ready to collapse right then and there. He knew how to ride a horse and trained pretty regularly but he never rode one for such a long period of time. The teen couldn’t feel his body from the waist down and his arms were sore and seemed like they would fall off at any second. Now that the journey was over he was internally grateful for the gloves Wilbur had offered him just before they left the house, because the boy didn’t even want to imagine the blisters he’d have if not for them. 

The ride started off normally enough: Phil and Techno walked a bit behind and talked quietly between themselves while Will and Tommy led the way with the older man periodically probing his brother in the side and laughing when Tommy almost fell out of the saddle trying to reach and probe him back. But the longer the journey, the worse Tommy started feeling. His back hurt and he whined about it for almost two hours until Phil took pity on him and declared that it was time to stop and rest for a while. 

The whole ride afterward was pretty much the same: Tommy felt more and more horrible, Techno made fun of him for whining and Phil looked like he immensely regretted his decision to take the youngest boy with them. The only notable exception to the routine was during the second day of travel when Will tried to throw a half-eaten apple at Tommy but missed and hit his horse instead. It got frightened and galloped for a while with the poor teen barely holding onto its back until finally getting off the path and stuck in a bush. While calming the horse and helping loudly cursing Tommy get off it Phil looked like he had a hard time deciding if he should tell Wilbur off, comfort the boy or just laugh his head off and forget about the whole thing.

When the company got to the tavern and it was time to finally get off the horses Tommy didn’t even protest when Techno lifted him out of the saddle and helped to stand up. He was just too tired to feel any kind of embarrassment. The boy’s legs were wobbly and he couldn’t wait to finally land on some sort of bed and sleep for at least a year. Wilbur and Techno went to take care of the horses while Tommy and Phil entered the tavern to pay for their rooms. 

The building itself wasn’t anything special, just a regular tavern like in any other small town. Phil paid for two rooms as they'd agreed to while on the road: one for him and Techno and another for Tommy and Wilbur. 

It was now early morning so thankfully there weren’t that many people around to see Tommy walk up the stairs like a newborn fawn. Wilbur passed the boy his bag after he entered the room and Tommy thought about changing into something less dirty after the long road but decided not to the second he saw the bed and collapsed onto it. The teen saw Will write a reply to something Techno said and start going through his things for a change of clothes just before dozing off. Trying to sleep on bare earth for three days straight did help Tommy appreciate beds more, that was for sure.

# # # # #

When Tommy woke up the first thing he noticed was the pain in his legs and back. He considered just staying in bed for the duration of the trip but the fear of missing out on everything that could potentially happen, including local gossip and the opportunity to see his family do their job that his inner child was still very excited about won in the end. The teen sat up with a groan and looked around the room. It looked exactly like he expected it to: bare walls, floor stained with alcohol and other things Tommy preferred not to think about, two beds and bedside tables near each one. Tommy looked over to his and saw a note and a small package lying on it. He took the note and skimmed over it. It said:

”Hey Tommy! If you wake up and nobody’s there, know that we left to talk to the guards about the witch and will probably be back soon. We left you some food in the package, eat or Phil will be grumpy and sad. You can walk around town, just don’t go into the forest and you should be fine. There’s a clock tower just next to the tavern, we’ll meet up in Phil and Techno’s room at 4 pm. Signed, Wilbur.”

The teen decided to actually stretch his legs in hopes of getting them to hurt less in the next couple of days. He finally changed his clothes, took the package from the table and walked out of the room with difficulty.

The town was almost identical to the ones Tommy and his family lived in. It was slightly bigger with a larger population but other than that everything seemed eerily familiar. The clock on the tower showed that it was 1 pm which meant the boy had plenty of time to look around and not be late for the meeting in three hours.

He walked around the town idly for an hour or so, just going down various streets and reading signs above workshops and pubs and trying to ignore the burning sensation in his lower back. He got to the edge of town and walked alongside it, seeing a couple of guards patrolling around the forest. He saw a big rock and sat down next to it facing the forest to finally eat since he’d already felt his stomach growl more than a couple of times. Tommy opened the package to see a piece of bread, an apple and a block of cheese. He took out the apple first, putting the rest of his lunch down next to him and just relaxing. 

He wondered if Phil, Wilbur and Techno were done talking to the guards now and what they found out from the conversation. They probably wouldn’t go in immediately after. Techno liked to plan everything out first to avoid unnecessary injuries and make sure everyone knows their place during the hunt. Tommy personally didn’t see how it would be important to deal with just one magic user at a time, but Phil and Wilbur usually listened to him so maybe it did help in some way. The job really was looking to be pretty simple with all the guards backing the hunters up, so the most difficult thing would probably be actually finding the witch in the forest. She was injured though if the information about the case was correct so she couldn’t move that much and very likely just chose one place to hide and wait it out before making an attempt to escape.

Tommy’s musings were cut short when he felt someone’s gaze on him. He peered harder into the forest, squinting, but didn’t see anything. The boy shrugged and, having decided it was just his imagination playing tricks on him, moved his hand to take the bread from the paper wrapping on the grass only to feel something soft and warm touch his palm. Tommy jerked his hand back in surprise and turned to see a large red fox look at him in equal measures disdain and alarm, holding the boy’s cheese in its teeth.

”What the fuck? Where did you come from?” the teen exclaimed, looking at the still unmoving animal. “Doesn’t matter. That cheese is mine, man, so just give it back and we won’t have any problems.”

Niki had said that most witches had a special connection with animals. Tommy even managed to have some sort of conversation with a bird that was about to snatch one of his drying up socks, and it seemed to understand him since it nodded sometimes and left the piece of clothing alone in the end. So the teen hoped the same strategy would work now.

But the fox didn’t seem to think him worthy of its attention: the animal turned around and bolted in the direction of the forest. Tommy cursed and looked around: the guard that was there minutes ago seemed to move farther and disappeared from sight. The teen knew that one of the only things his family asked him to do was to not go in the forest, and for a good reason too. He wasn’t even going to eat that cheese since it’d been in a wild animal’s mouth. There was a dangerous criminal on the loose, it definitely wasn’t worth it.

But then the fox that was already on the very edge of the forest turned around and seemed to smirk with the food still in its teeth.

”Oh, you fucker.”

Tommy looked in the direction the guard went just to make sure he still wasn’t there and ran towards the tree line. Now it wasn’t just the cheese on the line – it was the teen’s pride.

The fox saw the boy move in its direction and had the decency to look surprised. It jumped in the air and continued running deeper into the forest, Tommy going right behind it and wincing periodically because of the pain in his legs.

The chase went on for a while, the fox ducking and turning chaotically and Tommy trying to not get too far behind it. He was already getting out of breath but refused to give up. Finally the boy ran the animal into a corner: a long cliffside with greenery covering it from top to bottom. Now he just had to get his block of cheese back and try to avoid the fox biting him, no big deal.

But to the teen’s surprise the animal didn’t stop and turn around. Instead it continued running and went straight into the wall, disappearing behind the vines.

Tommy walked up to the rock, bewildered. He reached his hand out and touched the plants, feeling them vibrate beneath his fingertips. There was a passage in the wall, hidden with illusion magic tied to the vines that were covering the stone. Was that the place the wanted witch chose to hide..? There was no way Phil and others would find her if that were the case.

The boy sighed and, instead of thinking about it rationally, decided to bite the bullet and investigate. He concentrated and with effort managed to make a small tear for himself, finally being able to see the clearing behind the vines. He moved through and let go of the magic, letting the wall of enchanted greenery stitch itself back together. Tommy hadn’t ever seen such intricate and powerful witchcraft; that witch was probably extremely strong and knowledgeable. 

He looked around the clearing, the fox he was chasing a minute ago already forgotten. There was a small farm to his left with pumpkins growing on it, another farm with something that looked like carrots right next to the first one, a lot of fruit trees to his right and a small wooden cottage right in front of him, smoke coming out of the chimney on its roof. 

But what caught the boy’s attention in the end wasn’t the house; instead, it was the person in the fruit garden who was holding a basket half full of pears in their hands and wearing a long brown skirt. They stood with their back turned to the sudden visitor, reaching for the next fruit on the tree. After taking it off the branch and putting it in the basket, the stranger turned around and faces Tommy, who was frozen in place in fear and anticipation. The person was wearing a black band over their eyes that seemed opaque, and the boy wondered if they could see. To Tommy’s further surprise the person smiled warmly, not trying to move anywhere near the boy, and said in a deep pleasant voice:

”Hello, little one. Are you lost?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter seems absolutely unreadable and all over the place to me, but I hope it wasn't too bad. I think I made it pretty obvious who the stranger is...  
> Thank you for all the feedback, it motivates me to continue doing this!! I know I say it every time, but it really means a lot to me<3


	16. A Punishment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has a brief description of an OC child's death (after the words "Henry is my son"), please read with caution!

Tommy was standing in front of someone who was possibly a murderer on the loose, but it really didn’t seem like it if he was being honest. They were still unmoving but now with their head turned slightly in curiosity. Nothing about the stranger seemed especially threatening, but Tommy already knew looks could be pretty deceiving so the boy wasn’t going to let his guard down and relax because of a polite smile. But because he was so tense and ready to defend himself at any second the teen couldn’t control his mouth which he wasn’t very good at even in normal situations, so the first thing that came out of it was, “I’m not little.”

The person chuckled in surprise and started laughing, their head thrown back and throat exposed. That didn’t seem like a very smart move in Tommy’s opinion. He immediately recalled his training with Techno where one of the first lessons was keeping his chin down to not leave one of the most vulnerable parts of your body open. The stranger was either not a very skilled fighter or, on the contrary, very confident in their abilities. 

Finally, they lowered their head and replied, “I’ll take that into account in the future, don’t worry. But are you lost? Or were you in fact looking for me?”

Tommy looked the person over again and said in an uncertain voice, “Depends on who you are, actually. You don’t look like a woman in her forties to me.”

”That's probably because I’m not. But who’s that woman you’re speaking of? Not a lot of people wander near my house, but maybe I can still help a fellow witch out.”

So they really were a magic user. Tommy still couldn’t recognize witches on sight since he didn’t have any practice that Niki had told was crucial to acquire that ability, but the illusion magic on the only entrance to the clearing was a dead giveaway. 

”I’m not actually looking for her, more like trying to avoid stumbling onto her by accident,” Tommy looked back to the passageway and asked, “Did you charm that entrance? I probably could do better, but it’s still pretty okay.”

The stranger raised their eyebrows skeptically but nodded.

”Anyway, if you’re not that woman, then who… wait a minute.” Tommy remembered the reason he was here in the first place. “Have you seen a real fucking smug fox around here by any chance? It had a block of cheese in its mouth. My cheese. Also, it’s kind of weird talking to each other when I don’t know your name.”

The person sighed long-sufferingly and muttered, “I knew he didn’t just saw that cheese “lying there”,” they then turned in the direction of the house and yelled, 

"Fundy, care to explain this?”

They looked back at Tommy and reached out a hand with their open palm facing the teen.

”I’m Eret, by the way.”

The boy looked dubiously at Eret’s hand and put his palm against theirs cautiously. The other person’s hand was warm and they slid it up and down Tommy’s palm as if memorizing it.

”I’m Tommy, please don’t curse me right now or I’ll be so upset.”

Eret laughed again and said, “I won’t. Probably.”

Well, if that didn’t sound extremely menacing. Tommy didn’t have the time to overthink it though, because he heard the sound of the door opening and turned to see another person exiting the cottage. It was a young lean man with honey-ginger hair that had streaks of white in it and stubble on his chin. He was wearing a dark brown robe and holding cheese in his hand with visible teeth marks on it. Tommy frowned incomprehensively, but then it clicked.

”That was you!”

At that moment the man seemed to notice him and his eyes widened.

”How the hell did you get here?”

Tommy started getting closer to the house, his pride the most important thing once again.

”That cheese is mine, bitch!” the teen yelled at the bewildered man, not paying any attention to confused Eret that looked unsure as to what they should do while still holding the fruit basket in their hand.

“Fundy, did you actually rob a child?” Eret asked, still watching Tommy come closer to the porch threateningly and chuckling to themselves.

”Not a child, Eret, why does everyone insist on calling me that?” the boy mumbled, not taking his eyes off of the cheese thief who started slowly stepping backwards into the building. Tommy quickened his steps and ran up the stairs to the cottage entrance. 

Eret suddenly stopped laughing and exclaimed, “Wait, Fundy, what about Esther?”

Fundy stopped in his tracks but the teen was right on his tail and crashed into the man at full speed, stumbling through the door and into the house and landing on the floor.

It wasn’t a large building on the outside and, as it turned out, also not that spacious on the inside. It was quite homey with a warm carpet on the wooden floor, flower pots in the corners and lovely yellow curtains on the window. From where he was lying on the ground Tommy noticed that there were no pictures on the walls which wasn’t that out of the ordinary and candles or oil lamps, which was a little more interesting but maybe they just kept the sources of light in the other room. 

There was a small table with two chairs right beneath the window, a wardrobe to the left of it and a single bed to the right. When the boy got up, wincing from the pain in his scraped knees, he noticed that the bed wasn’t empty. In it lied a pale woman with tangled blond hair and deep wrinkles near her mouth that looked at the teen with her eyes widened in horror. She was struggling to get up and kept pressing closer to the wall behind her, her breathing heavy and irregular. Tommy remembered the description of the witch Techno gave him: around forty, long blond hair. The teen looked closer and noticed bandages tied over her shoulder. Injured.

”It’s you…” Tommy breathed out and scrambled to his feet. 

That was the witch that killed people and of who the whole town was now living in fear. But she didn’t look like a cold-blooded murderer at all, just someone very scared and tired and resigned to their fate. Tommy saw Fundy stand up next to him out of the corner of his eye and didn’t pay the man any mind. What was she doing here? Was Eret hiding her from the guards and the hunters? Were they an accomplice? Because if it was so, then Tommy was completely surrounded and would have to fight back solely because of his own stupidity. He probably should’ve listened to Wilbur, but regretting his decisions wasn’t a way to go, especially if the decision depended on one of his brothers’ advice in some way.

At that moment Eret walked into the room and tried to calm everyone down.

”Let’s not do anything irrational here.” The witch addressed Tommy, “I see you know who Esther is, but you most definitely haven’t seen the whole picture.”

Tommy looked over at Eret, shocked. “What picture are you talking about? She killed three people, haven’t you heard?”

The woman whispered something in a raspy voice, too quiet to hear.

”What is it, Esther?” Eret asked attentively.

”…And I don’t regret it.” She raised her voice and Tommy saw a spark of determination and triumph in the woman’s eyes. “I killed those bastards and I don’t regret it at all. They took my Henry, my little angel away from me and no one cared. No one moved a finger! He was just a boy…”

Esther’s voice trailed off and she sighed shakily, looking away from the others in the room. Tommy frowned, puzzled, and asked, “What’s that about Henry? Who’s that?”

The woman didn’t turn away from the wall but explained quietly.

”Henry is my son. Was my son. My husband passed away years ago, and he was the only thing left of my love on this earth. Henry was a bright and curious boy, although he didn’t have a lot of mates. He turned 12 just a month ago, and we celebrated together.” Esther smiled sadly and swallowed. “But two weeks ago he went for a walk and didn’t return before it got dark like he usually did. I got worried and wanted to go and search for him when my neighbour came and told me that those horrible men cornered Henry on the street and walked with him to a nearby alley. She told me she heard a child scream. I ran there as fast as I could and that’s when I saw it – the sight I’ll never forget.” The woman paused, trying to sort through her terrible memories. There were tears in her eyes, and Tommy already knew where this was going.

“There was so much blood. I think I fainted, and when I woke up the whole street was awake and surrounded me and my poor boy. There was a trial held on the very next day. I had to look those monsters in the eye and I saw no remorse in them, only confidence.”

She finally turned around and locked gazes with Tommy.

“They told the judge Henry was a witch. They showed scratches on their hands that he left while struggling to fight them off and blue roses they found on him and said he charmed the flowers to hurt them. But those men lied: Henry couldn’t have charmed the roses because he didn’t have a trace of magic in him. I grew those roses for him. Blue was his favorite color.”

The woman’s eyes flashed with anger and her hands clenched into fists. “And those idiots believed them! Everyone – all the witnesses, even the neighbour that heard my boy’s last screams, decided that it was completely fair for three grown men to beat a child to death because they thought he was a witch and scratched them with some flower thorns. They were declared innocent and just had to pay a small fee to the judge for the inconvenience and wasted time.” She sighed and shook her head in resignation. “People can be cruel, and sometimes there’s nothing to do but be cruel in return.”

Tommy took a deep breath and tried and process everything Esther had told him. Who could excuse people that did something like that? 

Eret stepped in and added, “Fundy found Esther sitting against the stone wall around my clearing with an arrow in her shoulder. I helped her heal and listened to her story, and I won’t let this woman suffer any more than she already did. If she deserves punishment for what she’s done, she had already received it.”

Tommy looked around and saw Fundy nod in agreement. Eret was standing still with tension in their shoulders, waiting for the teen to react in some way. Tommy glanced at the woman again and sighed.

”That wasn’t what I was expecting when I sat down to eat my lunch today.” The boy muttered. He turned to Eret and said, “I won’t tell anyone about this. I wasn’t supposed to be here anyway, I’ll just pretend it never happened.”

Eret gave a small nod of gratitude and stepped out of the boy’s way. “Fundy will show you the way out of the forest. Be safe.”

After a story like this, Tommy doubted he'd ever feel safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No one will question Eret's pronouns because this is my universe and I said so. I'll probably be using other pronouns in different chapters, we'll see how it goes :) Tell me if anything seems off!
> 
> Thank you for reading, hope you like the story so far! 
> 
> PS: some people have asked me about sending fanart, so if anyone would be interested in doing that - my tumblr is t0tallyspine, you can tag me so I will see it and share the link in the work (if you want me too). If you're not comfortable using tumblr, please tell me other ways that would work for you so I could add them because I've never worked with this before and am completely in the dark about this.  
> If you do draw or made or wrote something inspired by this work - I'd literally cry, that would make my whole year.  
> But just seeing all the comments and kudos is amazing and I'm very grateful for an audience such as yourselves. Take care!!<3


	17. Plans

Fundy raised the vines over the passageway with one hand, letting Tommy out and lowering the plants after exiting. When Tommy turned around, he saw nothing but a stone wall covered in greenery and felt a strong urge to look away, his gaze naturally sliding past it to the side. That illusion magic was even stronger than it seemed at first, and definitely for a good reason. 

Esther would be safe with Eret until she recovered from her injury. Even if the hunters went out to search for the witch, they wouldn’t be able to find her unless they had another magic user with them or saw someone actually entering or exiting the clearing through the passage. Tommy didn’t want his family to go home frustrated and thinking they failed to protect people, but if Esther was to be believed she didn’t plan on hurting more people after getting her revenge. And if that wasn’t the case… The teen was completely ready to make her pay himself, without letting his family anywhere near her.

”Why did you even run after me?” Fundy asked the boy, stopping his train of thought. “What were you going to do? Fight a wild fox for a dirty block of cheese?”

”That’s none of your business, and honestly? I shouldn’t even be talking to you. It’s because of you I even got into this mess. Does Eret not feed you or something? You live with them, right?”

”That’s the thing,” the man replied, frustration audible in his voice, “I don’t. I was just coming through here when the situation with Esther happened and now I can’t leave until this is over and done with. Eret would find and strangle me if I just went away now.”

”And also: the cheese thing wasn’t my fault at all. Shape shifting has its side effects, you know.” Fundy rubbed his nose with the back of his hand, as if embarrassed. “Sometimes animal instincts just take over.”

”Do you also pee on trees to mark your territory?”

”I’m not that out of control as a fox, what the hell. Gross.”

Tommy shrugged and said indifferently, “Well, it was only logical to assume that.”

”How was that logical?” Fundy sighed deeply and muttered something under his breath. “Alright, I’m not going to argue with a kid. We’re almost there anyway, let’s just walk in silence and not talking about foxes.”

”Sure, of course.” Tommy agreed only to add a few seconds later, “Do you also hunt mice and shit?”

Fundy groaned loudly, “I’m not talking to you.”

Tommy tried to ask more about fox habits, but the other man didn’t seem to be listening. Not that it stopped the teen from continuing to ramble on, it never did.

Soon the buildings of the town became visible behind the tree line and Fundy looked very obviously relieved when Tommy looked around the path just before the forest and ran out as sneakily as he could. The packaging of his lunch was still lying in the grass so he picked it up and hurried off into the streets. The boy didn’t know how long he spent running around the forest and speaking to the other witches, and he still needed to be at the tavern to meet up with his family.

After wandering the streets for a while and asking a couple of strangers for directions Tommy finally managed to find the tavern just before it hit 4 pm. He ran up the stairs and saw everyone already sitting in Phil’s room, discussing something animatedly.

”Hello everyone, I’m absolutely not late, how’ve you been doing?”

The men turned to Tommy and Phil asked, “Did you run here? You’re all sweaty.”

Tommy frowned and lowered himself to the floor right next to the bed where Wilbur and Techno were sitting.

”Oh, I was actually trying to be here on time and not make everyone wait, but it turns out the mighty Phil doesn’t like my sweat. I’ll just leave now, see how you’ll turn out without me.”

”Probably better when we are now, if I’m being honest.” Techno said with a smirk.

Will ruffled Tommy’s hair affectionately to get his attention and shoved his open notebook into his face.

”Your sweat is great, Tommy, please stop being loud now.”

Tommy was still fuming and opened his mouth to be as loud as possible, but then remembered the reason they actually got there together, as well as the encounter he had only an hour ago in the forest, and sobered almost instantly.

This could all go very wrong. What good would his silence do if Esther was caught by the hunters? What if she found out Tommy came with them and decided he didn't follow through with his promise? That woman was already grieving and lost and had nothing to lose. Her words wouldn't sway the teen's brothers and father completely, because since when did they believe something a deceiving magic user said, but it would certainly put seeds of doubt into their minds, and Tommy couldn't allow for that to happen. He still didn't know where he stood regarding the crime and the punishment the woman experienced and if he could ever understand her point, but the boy absolutely couldn't afford to slip up and give his family even the smallest reason to doubt him.

He was still new to the family: four years really was nothing, if he thought about it. For Tommy it was a large part of his life, while for Techno, Wilbur and Phil it could be something that just came and went. He gritted his teeth and took a shaky breath. Tommy wasn't going to be just a magic black spot on the record of the people he cared about the most. And if for that he had to hide a part of who he was - that's how it was going to be. He looked around - at Phil who was still chuckling at his sons' antics, at Wilbur who was scribbling something down in his speaking notebook, at Techno whose eyes were closed and posture relaxed with his long non-human ears lying flat against the man's head. It would be worth it if he got to stay with them.

"Tommy, are you okay? You've gone really quiet all of the sudden."

The boy rubbed the back of his neck and smiled nervously.

"Yeah, yeah, it's fine, don't worry, Phil." He hurried to change the topic. "So, what are your plans for the hunt?"

Wilbur added something to his speech on the page and flipped it so everyone can see.

"We're thinking it won't be too hard to deal with the witch. The guards told us she was shot in the shoulder so her movements are restricted, which limits most witches' ability to do magic. She's never attacked anyone before, which means she probably doesn't have a lot of experience in offensive magic."

Techno read the words and continued where Will had stopped.

"Exactly. She's never left the town, lived here since she was born. There's still a chance that witch is secretly a master of combat, but it's not very likely.

The forest itself is also pretty small and completely surrounded, so if we just methodically search through it from different sides, we're going to stumble upon her sooner or later."

This did sound like a solid plan for a hunt like that. The magic user was wounded and not very experienced, and Techno never underestimated his opponents so he'd still come prepared and completely equipped. 

Tommy'd seen the condition the woman was in, and she really didn't stand a chance unless Eret and Fundy interfered. And that was another problem, wasn't it?

Tommy couldn't go with the hunters secretly because he knew he would get caught and sent back immediately, but he couldn't let his family get hurt. The teen didn't know about Fundy, but Eret was definitely a skilled magic user and was adamant about protecting his guest. That was a tough situation, and Tommy really needed to do something about it and soon. 

Silence absolutely wasn't going to cut it.

"What's her name?" The boy asked, unexpectedly for the other men as well as for himself. He already knew her name, why would he ask that? He thought about it. Partially so that he wouldn't call the woman by her name accident and give himself away, partially... To see if she was still a person with a life and a name in the hunters' eyes. To know if he would be too.

Phil replied, "It's Esther. Esther Smith. Why are you asking?"

Tommy shrugged trying to look as nonchalant as possible. "No reason, just curious, I guess."

That explanation seemed to satisfy the older man, and the conversation turned to matters more practical, such as the weapons that would be used, the gear, the supplies that would be taken and other very important things. Past Tommy would've been thrilled at the opportunity to listen to a discussion like this: the boy was usually excluded and only learned the details from his actual witch hunting lessons that were completely theoretical, so to be present during a conversation like that was one of his biggest dreams, somewhere a bit lower on the list than actually becoming a hunter himself. But the present Tommy, a witch with responsibility not only to himself but to his friends at home, to a lone forest magic user and a shape shifter he just met, to a woman that wanted some peace after the death of her son was deep in his thoughts, still trying to find a way that would have everyone be safe.

The family came down for dinner after the conversation was over and Phil said that they needed to go to bed early to prepare in the morning. Tommy decided to sit at the table on the first floor for a little while longer, saying he wasn't tired and telling everyone goodnight. Phil made the bartender promise not to give Tommy anything stronger than water and went up the stairs with Techno.

Just before leaving, Will tore a page out of his notebook and put it next to the teen with a smile. When the man left, Tommy looked at it and read, "You seemed really quiet today. I know hunts can be a bit overwhelming, so if you need to talk I won't be sleeping for some time. Just come to our room and I'll listen."

Tommy swallowed, folded the paper carefully and put it on his pocket. The witch knew he couldn't tell his brother the real reason he was so silent today, but the gesture was still kind and warm and felt like something big and bright. He continued sitting at the table, listening to conversations around him and sipping at some warm water.

A group of guards still in their uniforms, probably just after their patrols were finished, came into the tavern and sat down at the table right next to Tommy's. They were laughing loudly and ordered a lot of food for themselves, as well as something to drink. After a while the conversation stirred to the town's witch on the loose, and the teen decided to listen in.

"Saw the hunters that came today?"

"Yeah, they talked to John about that horrid witch. He says they were actually the Watsons!"

"Phil Watson himself in our little town, can you believe that? And what about the other one?" the guard lowered his voice, "you know, the weird son?"

The second man laughed mockingly, taking another sip of his drink.

"Bastard's a real piece of work. Scary looking son of a bitch, with tusks and a proper snout. Looked at John like at some bug under his shoe, that one."

"They say his mum fucked with a pig and here's the result. How bad must someone be in the sheets if a pig could do better than him!"

The guards laughed again, not paying any mind to the seething Tommy who was glaring daggers at them. How dared they talk about his family like that? People that came all the way here just because those men were too cowardly to catch a witch themselves!

The teen started getting out of his chair to tell those men all that he thought of them when he heard one of the guards say something that caught his attention.

"We'll, the important thing is they're here and the mayor approved the mass manhunt."

"He did? When is it happening then?"

The guard answered, "In three days' time. They still need to give out the weapons and the supplies. The hunters will run the witch out in the open, and we'll be waiting for her as long as needed be. Make a camp out there, not let anyone in or out until she's caught and we can finally get a deserved day off."

A manhunt? Tommy forgot all about the insults he was about to rain on the guards' heads and instead began thinking about what it meant for Esther. And it really wasn't anything good.

She needed to get out of town and find someplace safe to wait out. There were bigger, much older forests out there where the woman could hide, but for that to happen she still had to leave the one she was in and it just wasn't possible with dozens of people running around and setting camps. She only had three days to leave and there was no way Phil, Techno and Wilbur wouldn't immediately be on her tail, and Tommy's secret would be threatened.

He needed to do something before the time was up, he needed a plan. And the boy already had something in mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tried to reread some of the chapters and oh god, my writing is a complete mess, I'm so sorry...
> 
> Ahem. Anyway. I can't believe I thought this work was going to be about 30k words and I'm already past that point and only halfway through. I'm so bad at self-control.
> 
> Thank you very much for your support!! It really means the world. Take care<3


	18. Following

The guards stopped talking about the witch and the hunters soon after so Tommy tuned them out, although their words about Techno and Phil still rang in his mind and left a sour taste in his mouth. Sadly, the teen couldn’t attract much attention to himself if he wanted to go through with his ideas, so he had to physically refrain from doing anything reckless like punching at least one of those men in the nose or, disregarding Niki’s warnings about curses, charming horns onto their heads. He knew it was possible because he had to actually read some of the books his teacher offered him, and the boy felt as though he could do it without really trying just using the sheer power of his anger and disgust. Before something irreparable could happen, Tommy decided he’d had enough of eavesdropping and got up from the table to return to his and Wilbur’s room.

While walking up the stairs and along the hall the boy ran over the plan in his head once again. The teen personally thought the scheme was absolutely flawless but there were still some factors he couldn’t control, including his family members and the patrolling guards. If Eret and Fundy were smart they would agree to help him out, but for that he had to reveal that the hunters that came after Esther were his father and brothers, which was a huge risk that he would have to take for the plan to come in motion. 

When Tommy came into the room, he saw Wilbur asleep on his bed, still fully clothed and a notebook lying open with pages down on the man’s chest, a pencil lying on the floor, probably having fallen out of Will’s hand when he dozed off. Tommy picked up the pencil and the notebook, hesitating for a moment before the temptation of reading through the open pages that he hadn’t seen. In the end he chose to close it and put it aside on the bedside table, deciding not to intrude onto conversations of his brother that were possibly private after Will obviously spent the evening waiting for Tommy out of worry when he could’ve easily gone to sleep after the first five minutes of the boy’s absence. 

The teen climbed into his bed and stared at the ceiling, lost in thought. He was going to have a busy couple of days.

# # # # #

Just like Phil said, the hunters left the tavern almost immediately after dawn. Tommy woke up to the sound of the door closing behind Wilbur and the voices of Phil and Techno saying “good morning” to each other in the hallway. The boy opened his eyes with difficulty, stifling a yawn and throwing his legs off the bed. He didn’t have time to get dressed so it’d been a smart move to go to bed still in his walking clothes, just like Wilbur did. Tommy waited until he couldn’t hear voices or footsteps anymore and slowly walked out into the hall. He watched through the window as the hunters walked out of the building, bags with supplies and weaponry strapped to their shoulders. They probably wouldn’t return until dark, so that was Tommy’s chance to get to Eret’s house and spend as much time as they needed to discuss the plan and figure out all the details.

Tommy figured they wouldn’t let him starve so he didn’t bother with bringing food with him to the forest. His task now was to follow his family, staying a few turns behind as to not get seen by any of them. Techno obviously already found the shortest and most convenient way to get to the forest, unlike the teen who’d get lost again right after stepping out of the tavern, so he needed to hurry. Tommy planned on overhearing Phil stating the ways each of them would go during their search like he said he would during yesterday’s meeting and after that try to avoid meeting with any of them, since it would end really badly.

Tommy walked the streets, trying to get lost in the crowd of the townsfolk that were getting ready for the day, opening and entering their workshops and creating a perfect environment for the boy to follow his family unnoticed. He already saw the tree line getting closer with each passing minute, stretching his neck to look over the houses every now and again. The teen mostly followed Wilbur since the man walked behind Techn and Phil and was freakishly tall, which Tommy was in equal measures jealous and in awe of. He had his hands in his pockets, his step energetic but calm, posture relaxed. Will definitely regarded this hunt as something long-awaited, which still made Tommy uncomfortable. As the group took another turn, Wilbur suddenly paused and glanced over his shoulder and squinted, as though looking for something or someone in the crowd behind, making Tommy panic momentarily and duck behind someone’s back. But it was a false alarm: there was a music shop in the direction Wilbur was looking at, and Tommy saw his brother smile wistfully and shake his head before catching up to others. The boy sighed in relief at having avoided the crisis.

Finally, the group with Tommy included got to the edge of the forest and Phil stopped right before entering. He gave out the directions everyone would be going in, and the teen honestly tried to listen and understand, but he was never good with all the “north and south” junk. Techno made several attempts at teaching the boy but gave up pretty fast, and now Tommy regretted putting the man off of it. The teen took a deep breath and looked around, in case there were guards nearby, but there surprisingly weren’t any. He could absolutely do it, and he had nature on his side, so it would be fine. Eventually the hunters nodded, each knowing the way to go and stepped into the forest, disappearing behind the trees. Tommy walked over to where his family was standing earlier and fot down on one knee, closing his eyes and concentrating. He heard the sounds of hundreds of footsteps so loud and overwhelming the boy felt like his ears were bleeding, but he soon managed to get the noise under control and narrow it down to three pairs of steps: Techno’s to his right, Wilbur’s to his left and Phil’s right in front of him. Now the boy just needed to wait till the hunters went away far enough and try and get to Eret’s clearing since he would know where everyone was at all times.

It was a neat trick that could only work if you’re standing on some very fresh footprints. Otherwise it’s almost impossible to identify the person you wanted to track – Tommy had tried, and that time his ears really had started bleeding, which scared Tubbo half to death. 

After a few minutes the teen got up and walked through the tree line. It was difficult to keep the sound of the footsteps and cover his own footprints up at the same time and soon the boy’s head started aching horribly, but he couldn’t take any chances with such experienced hunters as his family members were. The noises got louder when he got distracted even for a second, and that concentrating for such a long time was something Tommy tried to avoid at all costs before that. Niki and Wilbur both tried to get him to meditate for completely different reasons, but stopped because he just kept falling asleep. Now the teen definitely wouldn’t be able to fall asleep, but the tension of trying to stay awake was there in the back of his mind, making it hard to go on.

Finally, the boy saw a familiar wall of greenery and almost shouted in celebration, stopping himself with the last shreds of self-control he had left. He heard the hunters walking far enough away that he wouldn’t have to worry about them hearing, but it still wasn’t a very smart idea.

Tommy entered through the passageway, the illusion magic easier to break through now that the vines were used to his presence, and the boy looked around the clearing he just a day ago planned on never seeing again. The garden was empty this time, but the porch of the cottage was occupied: Fundy was sitting on the floor, his legs crossed, and looking straight at Tommy with surprise and an underlining tension. 

”Why are you here again? Forgot your wallet or something?” the man asked, trying to look subtly behind the boy. The witch obviously didn’t trust him and thought he might have brought guards with him to arrest Esther, which was going to be a problem when Tommy would share his heritage with the shapeshifter. 

”Don’t worry, I came alone. How would I even explain seeing the entrance when no one else would be able to, huh?” Tommy said to calm Fundy down and not have to deal with his paranoia for any more time than absolutely necessary. “And also, what do you have against me, fox boy? Not furry enough for you?”

The man became visibly a bit more relaxed and a lot more annoyed. 

”This. This is exactly what I have against you. But really, what do you want?”

Tommy came close to the house and looked Fundy in the eye.

”I have information about the guards and the hunters that came for Esther. I want to help to get her out of town.”

Fundy raised his eyebrows in disbelief, “Really? I thought you wanted nothing to do with Esther.”

”You’re right, and I still don’t,” the teen replied truthfully. He’d give a lot to not be here and dealing with this right now, “But I have my own reasons that don’t really concern you. So please let me in so I can talk to Eret and tell him about my plan.”

Fundy didn’t look convinced but, having found no reason to stop the witch that offered to help, got to his feet and stepped out of the way. Now Tommy just needed to make everyone think he was actually competent and smart enough to pull his own scheme off. No big deal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this chapter is small and filler-ish, I honestly planned on finally getting close to the end of this arc, but the festival :) ruined all my plans :) I'm a Techno apologist and am still trying to cope with everything that happened today,,,,,
> 
> But still, thank you for all the kind words and kudos!! Means everything to me and motivates to write<3


	19. A Failure

"...This is an absolute garbage of a plan."

Tommy had just finished explaining his ideas to other witches. He was pacing from one corner of the room to another, gesturing wildly to illustrate his points, and froze with his hands still high in the air when the boy heard shapeshifter's comment.

Fundy and Eret were sitting at the table, with Esther still in the bed and listening intently. 

"What do you mean "garbage"? Do you have a better idea?" the teen asked defensively.

Fundy ignored the second question and continued, "There are zero guarantees that this will work. It all depends on dumb luck. Who says we can actually pull it off? That I can pull it off?"

Tommy smirked condescendingly. "If you think you're not strong enough to manage, you can wait for me and Eret to do all the work before you leave."

Bright red fur appeared on the man's cheeks and he bared his suddenly sharp canine teeth. 

"That's not what I'm talking about and you know it. It's some really complicated magic, and one small disturbance will shatter it to pieces."

The teen huffed in frustration. "I already told you: they're planning on searching the forest up and down. You'd be lucky if someone didn't stumble onto this little clearing by accident. The magic is strong, but it's not impossible and will happen sooner or later if crowds of scared people come and start running around." Fundy opened his mouth to argue, but Tommy raised his hand to stop him. "Shut. The fuck. Up. We have literally two days. We need to get Esther out at the end of them or she's screwed, there's no talking about it".

Eret, who was completely silent until that point, rubbed his chin and spoke thoughtfully, "No, but this could actually work. Invisibility, even with a correctly prepared potion, is a hard thing to maintain, I know, but Tommy's right. It's not like we have a choice, and this plan is better than nothing."

Silence fell over the room like a heavy blanket. Esther rubbed her hands together in a nervous motion, the sparks of hope in her eyes burning brighter now that Eret spoke up about the plan.

"Alright, let's say me and Esther manage to get out of town.” Fundy conceded, his fur slowly disappearing as the man made a conscious effort to calm down. “But you said yourself that sooner or later someone will find the clearing, and you’re right, so what about Eret? Are you leaving her to deal with that herself after we’re gone?”

Tommy just smiled confidently and shook his head. “Of course not, I’m not a monster to let them get discovered after all of this. That’s where the second part of the plan comes in.”

The teen looked over at Esther anxiously. He couldn’t decide if he should tell her everything about his family or just ask the woman to do her part without giving up any information. The witch seemed to trust Eret after they helped her, so she would rely on them for reassurance about the escape as well. If Tommy managed to convince Eret that he wasn’t a threat because of his family’s job, the woman would almost certainly agree to do what the boy needed her to.

”Actually, Eret… can we talk about this outside?”

”Aren’t you forgetting something? Esther and I are here too.”

Fundy looked over at Eret questioningly. They sighed and said, “It’s okay, Fundy. It won’t be your problem after you both leave the town, and I can take care of myself. After you, Tommy.”

The witch smiled reassuringly and got up from their chair. Tommy smiled uncertainly at the woman in the bed and exited the room, bracing himself for a difficult conversation.

Once outside, Eret gestured for Tommy to follow them and went further away from the cottage and to the fruit garden. As soon as the witches were far enough from the house that no one could hear their voices clearly from inside, Tommy decided to get it over with quickly and cut to the chase.

”We need a way to prevent the guards from organizing the manhunt, or they won’t stop it until they find at least someone, and they won’t be able to find Esther. And I know how to do that.” The boy took a deep breath. “I’ll tell the hunters that I was attacked by the witch and saw her escape.”

The witch tilted their head in consideration. 

”But Fundy told me that those hunters aren’t ones to give up on a pray easily. Even I heard about Philza Watson, and that’s saying something,” Eret chuckled without a trace of humor in his voice.

Tommy looked at Eret, determination bright in his eyes.

”We’re going to make them stay put. Because they wouldn’t follow her if my life was on the line.” The teen elaborated, “We’d make it seem like she cursed me and would finish the job if they followed her.”

Eret laughed, bitterly, more emotion in that laughter than Tommy’s heard before.

”And what makes you think they would actually care? Hunters have never been known for being sympathetic.”

The boy swallowed before dealing with the hardest part.

”My father and brothers are the witch hunters that came to find Esther. They don’t know I’m a witch and I want it to stay that way, but I also don’t want them to get hurt so if something happens to them I wouldn’t hesitate to protect them,” the teen spoke rapidly, stumbling over words and trying to seem more confident than he actually felt. 

Eret was turned away from the boy and he couldn’t see the emotions on his face, but since the witch wasn’t making any attempts to harm Tommy or interrupt his speech, the teen continued.

”I promise I won’t tell them because that would do jack shit for me. I just really want this all to be over so I can go home and not worry about being discovered and hunted by my own fucking family!”

The boy’s voice cracked pitifully at the end, and he stopped talking for a minute, waiting for Eret to reply. Finally, the witch turned around. Their face was blank and distant, and when they spoke, it was in a quiet and serious voice.

”If that will buy Esther more time, if that will help you keep your secret hidden – I’m willing to help. Tell me about this in more detail.”

# # # # #

After everything was discussed and all the steps of the plan corrected and confirmed, Tommy asked to let him stay in the cottage for a while until it got dark so he could be sure not to run across any of the hunters on the way home. The teen didn’t remember he hadn’t eaten anything in the morning until his stomach started grumbling and Esther strictly ordered Eret and Fundy to “feed the poor boy, for heaven’s sake”. It was hard to stifle his laughter when seeing Fundy running around with a literal tail between his legs, searching for food under the instructions of an injured middle-aged witch.

After it got almost completely pitch dark outside, Tommy said his goodbyes to the witches and went through the forest back to the town. The last words Eret said to him kept ringing in his mind:

”You’re a really interesting witch, Tommy. I wish you all the best, but wonder how long you’ll be able to cover up the part of himself that’s truly yours. Goodbye, Tommy. I hope we meet again.”

It was painfully silent until the boy let go of his control just for a minute and felt all the sounds enveloping him like a cocoon; the whispering leaves, the cracking of the branches under his feet, the air crackling with the tension of the day that was almost over. It was comforting and made Tommy feel like there were millions of gentle voices speaking of every secret he’d ever wanted to know. 

Two more days. Just two more, and the plan would come into motion.

# # # # #

”Phil! Phil, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean for this to happen!”

Tommy’s teary voice sounded through the hall of the tavern as he stumbled up the stairs, holding a hand to his chest pitifully, his shirt covered in dark blood that was already starting to dry up.

The bartender and the customers turned around in concern and curiosity as the boy ran up, stumbling on the steps and almost falling. Phil, Techno and Wilbur went out of their rooms and Tommy saw the expressions on their faces turn from slightly annoyed and resigned to scared, their eyes widening at the sight of the boy.

”I tried to… to stop her, I did, but she was much faster, Phil, I just…”

Tommy collapsed into Phil’s arms, breathing heavily, his face glistening with sweat.

”What happened? What’s wrong, Tommy? Show me your arm,” Techno came closer to Phil who was already checking the boy’s injury over, the men’s eyes wide and full of worry.

Wilbur, who couldn’t express his concern vocally, just stood there, his eyes moving from Tommy’s face to his wounded arm. There were dozens of deep, bloody scratches, the flesh underneath them raw and tender. Phil threw his arm over the teen’s shoulder in a protective gesture and walked him into the room. Will, finally having dealt with the shock, ran after them and started searching through the bags for bandages.

Phil helped Tommy to the bed and sat down with him, Techno on the other side of the boy telling Will to hurry up and bring the medical supplies. 

”What happened?” the man repeated his question, “Who is the "she" you’re talking about?”

Tommy took a deep breath and replied, “I was walking along the edge of the forest, like I did for the past few days. There are usually guards patrolling, I wasn’t ready for her to show up! For that… witch.”

The expression on Techno’s face hardened in a moment, rage and fury in his eyes and the line of his clenched jaw completely visible.

“What did she do?” Phil asked in a serious tone of voice.

”She saw me standing there. I wanted to get and get help, call for the guards or something, but she raised this weird plant from the ground with giant fucking thorns.”

Tommy put his uninjured hand in his pocket and took out one thorn to show Techno and Phil.

”I think she made me pass out with her magical bullshit, I just remember her crossing the border and running across the road.”

At that moment Wilbur returned from his room with bandages and a medical balm and passed them to Techno who started tending to the teen’s wounds.

“That’s it, she’s absolutely dead. She chose the wrong child to prick with her flower parts.” Technobalde muttered in anger.

Tommy sighed shakily, “Actually… she left something for you.”

Phil grabbed a note from Tommy with shaking hands and read,

’If you leave the town before three days pass, that boy will pay with even more blood than he already lost. If you want proof – try checking his back. Esther S.’

The older man immediately turned the boy around and lifted up his shirt, making the boy whimper in pain.

”Sorry, mate,” Phil whispered apologetically, “but this is really important.” 

There on Tommy’s back, right between his shoulder blades, was a circle that looked like it was drawn with a paintbrush, with small symbols in the center of it in a language long forgotten

”Damn, she’s not playing around. Techno, look.”

The younger man stopped bandaging his brother’s arm and glanced at the teen’s back.

”Will, finish with his arm.” Techno asked the man curtly and raised from the bed, Phil after him. The men walked out of the room into the hall, leaving the two other brothers alone.

Tommy’s breathing seemed to become more even, and he started listening intently to the conversation in the hallway.

”…Techno, it wasn’t your fault, calm…”

”But it was! It was, Phil, I promised Tommy I’ll protect him, that nothing would happen to him, and look at him now!”

”You’re not the only person in this family, Techno. I’m the oldest, shit, I’m Tommy’s father! I should’ve watched over him better.”

”But it was me, I told him that I wouldn’t let any harm come his way, and I failed! I failed, Phil…”

The voices became quieter until they were just broken whispers. Tommy expected them to be annoyed and angry at him for walking so close to the forest’s edge, for losing to a weak and injured witch. He didn’t expect that. Techno didn’t fail, he never did.

So why was he considering not protecting some stupid boy that got himself into trouble on the daily a failure?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How are we feeling after those streams, guys? Hope everyone's doing fine. Take care of yourselves!  
> I hope this chapter turned okay. My wrist hurts. Thank you for reading<3


	20. Rest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a scene of self-harm for plot-related reasons, the second and the third paragraphs. Read with caution :)

Tommy couldn’t hear anything after Techno’s last words, no matter how hard he tried. He was cold all over, although from the shock or from slight blood loss, he wasn’t sure. The desperation in the man’s voice really caught the teen off guard. He knew his family would probably be upset, they weren’t heartless, but it was his own fault, right? He said he was the one that got to the forest and got himself into this mess, they should’ve just fretted like they sometimes did, told him off for being reckless, and forgot about it. This reaction was completely unexpected and now Tommy was sitting in silence watching Wilbur finish bandaging his wounds, not quite knowing what to do and how to address it. 

Tommy may have overdone the injury slightly, but he just wanted for it to look convincing enough. The teen was pretty sure there would be no way Eret or Esther would agree to him feeling actual pain for a performance. Fundy might have been down just for fun of it, but Tommy decided not to risk it and do everything himself. He had to grow thorny vines and make them wrap around his hand, after that tighten them slowly until the thorns broke the skin and pull for them to leave deep cuts that created a natural look of struggle and attempts at escape. 

The boy wouldn’t have done it if he didn’t have the pain-reducing potion Tubbo gave him weeks before. It wasn’t yet properly tested for obvious reasons, but Tommy trusted Tubbo’s potion-making skills wholeheartedly. Even if it didn’t work as intended, it still would be better than nothing. In the end, it did reduce a portion of the pain Tommy felt because the wounds looked really nasty, but it still stung a lot and left him sluggish and with a horrible itch along the whole arm which was unfortunate since there wasn’t that much skin left to scratch. After finishing he left the blood-covered plant lying in the dirt just in case and broke off one of its thorns to show for reliability. It was important to cover up every possible loose end. 

After Will finished with the boy’s bandages, he patted his arm gently and tried to smile confidently, but worry was evident in his eyes and the corners of his mouth. The man took his notebook out and wrote, ‘Can I see your back?’

Tommy nodded hesitantly and turned around, lifting the shirt himself. He couldn’t see Wilbur reaction, but he doubted it was anything good judging by the way Techno and Phil responded to seeing the curse mark. Sitting there with a sinking realization that he greatly underestimated his family’s potential worry about magic Tommy felt increasingly uncomfortable, so the teen asked just to start some sort of conversation, “What does it mean? What’s there?”

Tommy, of course, knew what there was. The mark on his skin was a so-called “key” to a curse, drawn with a mix of ink and berry juice. It looked like a two-layered circle, the outside ring being thicker, with neat writing in a cross-like position connecting to the one inside of it. There were small markings in the shape of quadrangular stars in the spaces created by the lines of writing. Esther’s hand was shaking too hard, so Eret took on the duty of actually drawing it while the woman was the one to charm it to be the key holder.

Wilbur didn’t move for a minute, still seemingly studying the mark, but then took the notebook and the pencil and started writing rapidly. Tommy lowered his shirt back and watched as Will ran his eyes over the words and added something just before passing the book to the boy.

’It’s a curse key. I don’t know if you’ve heard of this one before since it’s used rarely because of it being a written one, but most call it “bad blood”. When activated, it causes bleeding from the eyes, nose, and ears of the cursed. The intensity of the bleeding is controlled by the key holder.’ Then, lower, a single line, ‘It’ll be okay, Tommy.’

Tommy sighed shakily, trying to look as scared and shocked as possible, his eyes jumping from line to line of the description he already knew.

Niki showed Tommy books of curses written by witches themselves so he could learn and recognize the keys, with strict instructions to never use them unless absolutely necessary. Written curses interested Tommy because of them being the most intricate and less talked about among the hunters, so “bad blood” was one of the first he actually memorized. It’s had a three-layer structure, like most of the written curses did: the setup, the fixation and the effect. Keys didn’t stay on dead bodies, and since most of the curse’s victims passed away from its effects faster than the key could be studied, the researchers didn’t have the exact writing down in any of their books. That’s why Tommy chose it: his relatives were experienced enough to recognize it, but couldn’t see that that particular key only had the first two layers drawn correctly. The writing, which was the part of the key responsible for the effects, was ever so slightly different because no one was ready to risk Tommy’s health for a cover-up.

”I really don’t want that to happen,” Tommy swallowed and looked at Will.

The man opened his arms with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes, and Tommy fell into the embrace, mouthing “I’m really sorry, Will” into the collar of the man’s shirt.

# # # # #

Phil and Techno didn’t return even after the clock struck midnight. Wilbur brought food for both of them from downstairs and wrote funny stories to Tommy and listened to the teen tell his for the fifth time and didn’t even complain, all just to cheer Tommy up. The boy still felt slightly guilty because of his deception, but his arm started to hurt a bit more after the effects of Tubbo’s potion started to die down, so he comforted himself with the thought that he deserved some attention and care because of it.

Soon both brothers started yawning and their eyes drooping slightly, so they decided to go to their room and rest. But when Tommy changed into something more comfortable, he saw Wilbur already lying in the teen’s bed facing the wall. Tommy sighed as if annoyed and got into the bed as well, but his heart clenched painfully inside when he put his forehead onto his brother’s back. They didn’t fall asleep next to each other since the boy was 13 and still had nightmares, coming into Wilbur’s room on his own and forcing his way into his half-asleep and grumpy older brother’s bed. It was nice to experience this again. 

When Wilbur’s breathing slowed down, the man obviously asleep, and Tommy was already dozing off, the teen heard the door to their room open. He decided to continue lying there with his eyes closed, exhausted after the eventful day and not in the mood to talk anymore, when he heard the person enter and come closer to their bed. They didn’t say anything for a minute or so, just standing near and breathing quietly, until they sighed and whispered, “I’m so sorry. I should’ve been there for both of you, damn it.”

Tommy stifled a surprised gasp and burrowed his face deeper into Wilbur’s back. Techno very rarely swore, even though Tommy kept asking him to, so hearing him say that right after such painfully raw words in a voice full of anger and regret really did something to the teen. Tommy felt the bed move slightly as the man sat down with his back against it, his head thrown back and lying on the mattress next to the boy. Tommy turned around carefully, saw Techno there with his hair not in a braid anymore and couldn’t resist running his hand through it. The man stilled for a moment but then relaxed with a sigh, getting more comfortable and moving his head a bit higher so it would be easier for Tommy to reach it. The boy fell asleep with a smile on his face, his hand still tangled in his brother’s locks.

He woke up to see the sunrise in the window over Wilbur’s bed, still really tired and with both of his hands sore, one because of the wounds and the other because of its position. He looked around with his eyes blurry from the untimely awakening and saw Phil sitting at the foot of the bed flicking through the pages of his travel journal. The man felt Tommy’s gaze on him and smiled softly.

”Go back to sleep, Tommy, it’s still too fucking early.” 

”Then why aren’t you asleep?” the teen asked, his voice hoarse.

”I’m doing adult stuff, you wouldn’t understand.” Phil smirked in reply.

“I so would,” Tommy yawned, “but ‘m too tired. Go sleep, Phil.”

Phil laughed and shook his head in wonder, but Tommy didn’t wait for him to answer and fell back into nothingness.

# # # # #

The next three days were lazy and uneventful, but Tommy enjoyed them immensely. They finally got to spend more time together. Phil met with the head guard and explained the situation to him, so the townsfolk were much more relaxed and visiting the local market was much more pleasant. Tommy got to eat as many caramel apples as he wanted with Phil indulging and paying for them, although Tommy had his own pocket money. Techno bought Tommy a weird-looking figurine of a raccoon from some old lady and laughed at the boy raging about it. That same old lady screamed at the teen for cursing so much so the family had to live in a hurry more out of fear than embarrassment. Tommy pointed at every piece of meat at the butchers’ stalls, asking Techno if it was him, the man correcting him every time with “that’s not pork, Tommy, you’re so bad at jokes, this is the third chicken breast you’ve pointed at.”

The other two days they just walked around town or sat and talked in the tavern, Wilbur somehow befriending the bartender and getting them all a food discount. They slept in one room every night, moving the beds together so everyone could fit. When standing near the gate near the horses, all packed and ready to go, Tommy thought he was going to miss that.

Looking onto the road and the forest surrounding it, the boy wondered how far Fundy and Esther managed to go. They left just before Tommy damaging his arm and, judging by the curse key on his back disappearing, the woman was probably safe if she remembered to erase it. Fundy agreed to be the anchor person that was required for someone to use the invisibility potion. His hair was added to it and Esther drank the liquid, holding onto the man’s coat to not dissolve into nothing, which was a possibility without the anchor or the anchor not being concentrated enough to keep the invisible person in one piece. Judging by the curse key on his back disappearing last evening, the woman was probably safe if she managed to erase it.

The family was ready to leave the town when Tommy saw a group of familiar people in the distance. The boy smirked in silent glee and turned to Will, saying, “I just saw an acquaintance, can I go say goodbye before we go?”

Wilbur looked over and nodded, waving his hand in a “hurry up” gesture. Tommy ran down the road and grabbed the person’s elbow, making them turn around in surprise.

”Oh my god, I wanted to talk to you before I left.” Tommy exclaimed, wide-eyed. “I’m really grateful for all your service, you’re so brave for guarding the city while there’s a dangerous witch on the loose. Can I shake your hand? It would make me so happy.”

The guard, the one that made fun of Techno’s appearance, looked confused but slightly pleased at having an excited teenager singing him praises. “Of course, kiddo. But just that, I have work to do.”

Tommy grabbed the offered hand and shook it enthusiastically. “No, of course not, I wouldn’t dare to delay you. Have a nice day!”

The boy took his hand back and ran to his horse, a satisfied smile playing on his lips. The boy rubbed his palm against his pants, shaking off the powder Eret gave him as a parting gift. It wouldn’t hurt the man to have a pig's tail for a couple of days. At least Techno’s tusks looked cool.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, I can start the setup for the plotline that I thought of since before starting this fic, lmao.  
> If you have any questions about the chapter cause I feel it's kind of a mess (as are all the others, but there's actually some worldbuilding in this one), ask them in the comments and I'll probably answer :D  
> Thank you for reading and all the support!!  
> Also, me, reading all the theories in the comments: do y'all think I have enough brain juice to write interesting plot twists? Very funny. But I enjoyed looking through them<3


	21. Invitation

The road back was similar to the first one but gentler, the atmosphere in the group lighter even thought the hunt was unsuccessful. The evening before the family took their leave they had all sat and stared at Tommy’s bare back in complete silence for half an hour and waited to see if the witch would keep her promise. It was incredibly awkward even by the teen’s really low standards and he constantly tried to say something to fill in the silence only to be shushed repeatedly by Phil. One time Wilbur’d had enough and covered the boy’s mouth with his hand only for Tommy to leak it and the man explode in silent indignation, which lightened the mood a little, at least in the boy’s opinion. When the mark had slowly faded out until there had been nothing left of it, three pairs of arms immediately enveloped him from all sides only for Techno to say after a minute of hugging that “we will never speak of this again. Goodnight” and fall asleep almost instantly. After that a huge weight had fallen off of everyone’s shoulders, which was the main reason why the hunters were in such a good mood during their ride home.

Tommy, on the other hand, was having tons of regrets about his actions, not because he felt like he made the wrong choice regarding helping Esther escape since that still seemed mostly right to him, but because he damaged his arm without thinking ahead and remembering that he’d have to ride a horse using just one arm, the other still hurting too strong for the teen to move it properly, so it just hung uselessly by his side. His back pain was finally almost gone after more than a week of not riding a horse, and Tommy was now regretting not appreciating that fact more when he had the time, because at the end of day one on the road it was back at full swing. The teen comforted himself with thoughts of his powers still being a secret to his family and of getting back at the judgmental bastard of a guard back at the town they left behind and felt slightly better.

Now that Tommy had all that time to think about it, the pig tail thing was his first curse, and the teen would say he was appropriately proud of it. Niki had said that the substantial curses were the easiest to cast in terms of energy and now the teen could say with certainty that it was true: it didn’t take any effort at all for him to feel the connection to the key somewhere on the man’s body after the powder touched his skin and the teen activated it that very instant. The boy planned to break the key when he got home; enough time to secretly gloat imagining the panic the guard was in but not enough for the situation to escalate and lead to any severe consequences.

Phil asked Tommy how he was feeling from time to time, Techno and Wilbur changing his bandages and checking up on his wounds twice a day. It reminded the boy of the time he broke his leg after falling out of a tree when he was twelve, just recently adopted by Phil. The way his new foster brothers were still wary near him but made sure he was feeling okay, all awkward and not quite sure what to do with themselves when their father put a cast onto the boy’s leg. For a couple of years after that Tommy, while remaining a troublemaker, tried not to get seriously injured anymore out of a weird mix of guilt and discomfort at having someone watching him so closely. And if something big did happen, he tried to hide it and deal with it himself. He was a big man, he could take care of his own injuries.

This time the ride lasted longer since the breaks were more frequent because of the teen’s arm, his brothers and father not accepting any refusals from Tommy himself.

”You’ve been complaining about it for the last hour, why are you protesting now? Children are so strange, you just can’t trust them,” Techno shook his head in genuine confusion. After that the teen started yelling about how big of a man he was and anything he had to say against the break was completely forgotten.

At noon of the forth day the family finally reached their house and went to their rooms to unpack. Tommy hadn’t really noticed just how homesick he was until the boy fell down on his own bed and saw the mess that was his desk, all the books and notebooks and papers thrown all over it haphazardly. Later he moved half of his notes over to the other side of the table and put the raccoon figurine on it, smiling to himself. It didn’t even look that ugly, standing in Tommy’s room. Maybe those guys weren’t all that bad.

That day the boy decided to go to sleep early. His back was killing him, and Tommy’s mattress was much more comfortable than the one in the tavern. He planned on meeting with Tubbo and Niki tomorrow. He was going to tell the other boy everything about the trip just to watch Tubbo be amazed by his obvious intelligence. He thought about talking about it with his teacher too but remembered how adamant she was about not casting curses that the teen changed his mind pretty quickly. Tommy was frankly scared of seeing the woman angry, so he decided not to tempt fate and just tell her he wasn’t ready to talk about it for now.  
With thoughts like that the boy drifted off to sleep, a day of catching up with his friends ahead of him.

# # # # #

The first thing Tommy noticed when he woke up was the absence of anyone’s arm on his face or someone’s elbow poking him in the ribs. It confused his half-asleep brain for a good minute as he wondered where everyone went, but then he remembered that they were home and his brothers and father were all sleeping peacefully in their rooms, finally not having to share two extremely small and moved together beds or cling to each other on the grass under some tree. Tommy sighed and opened his eyes completely, sighing in slight disappointment. He really did take good things for granted until they were taken away, huh?

The teen didn’t waste any time on moping though. He had friends to meet up with, he wouldn’t whine about his relatives not sleeping next to him like a five year old. Tommy got up from the bed, cursing loudly after feeling the muscles in his back ache horribly, and got dressed as quickly as possible. The sun was high in the sky so Niki was probably working in her garden right now, picking fruits to sell on the market later. Her apples were always sold out despite the whole marketplace getting flooded with apples every autumn.

The boy walked down to the kitchen and saw no one there. Tommy didn’t know if they were still asleep since they'd gone to bed later than him or if they left the house, but the teen didn't bother checking. He wanted to go and talk to Niki before going and meeting Tubbo at the apothecary after the older boy's workday was finished so he didn't have to go to his house and actually meet his family. Last time he got lucky they were out of the house, but the teen really didn't want to speak to anyone's parents right now.

Tommy wanted to grab something to eat before walking over to Niki's but remembered they didn't have any food. They took the bare minimum on the road so all the food supplies were completely demolished and there wasn't a lot left at home. He knew there were some vegetables, but the boy wasn't in the mood for cooking, so he decided he'd get to eat something later. Maybe that's where at least one of his family members was: getting food from the marketplace. Most likely they were all still snoring in their beds, but it didn't hurt to dream.

When Tommy got to his friend's house, she was exactly where he expected her to be: in the garden, with a basket already full of fruits and about to head inside. When she saw the boy she raised her eyebrows and exclaimed, "Tommy, you're back! You were gone for a pretty long time, Tubbo and I expected you to return sooner."

She came around the house to the front door and opened it, letting Tommy inside and following after the teen.

Tommy scratched his neck, his whole pose screaming awkward and nervous.

"Umm, yeah, some things came up, you know how hunts are..." He chuckled to cover up his uncertainty.  
He didn't think this conversation through.

In that moment Niki noticed the bandages under the sleeve of Tommy's shirt and gasped, worried.

"Tommy, your arm! What happened?"

The boy hurried to reassure her.

"It's nothing bad, really, just a couple of scratches. I don't really want to talk about it, if you don't mind. Let's speak about Tubbo instead. Have you checked on him often? Is he feeling okay?"

Tommy really was curious about the other boy's health: he was worried since his friend's cough seemed pretty bad when the teen left the town. He also didn't want to go all the way to the apothecary just to hear that Tubbo was still sick and didn't go to work. These reasons absolutely could exist at the same time.

"Yes, he's feeling much better and went to work yesterday for the first time since he'd gotten I'll," Niki answered absent-mindedly, still looking at Tommy's bandaged arm, "but I really want to hear about how your trip went."

The woman was insistant, and when that happened it was hard not to give in and do what she asks. But Tommy stood his ground and replied vaguely, "It was okay. The hunt wasn't successful, which is a shame, really, but we all went to the market together and Techno got me this figurine of this weird fucking raccoon..."

Niki interrupted him which she almost never did.

"So you didn't interact with the witch in any way and there were no curses involved, right?"

Tommy's mouth fell opened and he asked loudly, "How did you..?" The teen cleared his throat. "I mean, of course not, I don't know what you're talking about."  
Niki looked at him closely, a doubtful expression on her face.

"We'll, that letter states otherwise."

She took a piece of paper from the table near her and unfolded it, revealing a page filled with writing.

"You wouldn't happen to know who 'the most loud and really tall child on the planet' may be, would you?"

Tommy took the letter out of the woman's hands and scowled at it.

"Fundy, you furry little bastard..." the boy muttered angrily, reading through the detailed description of everything that happened with Esther.

Niki folded her hands over her chest. "Oh, so you are the person talked about in this letter?"

Tommy ignored the question to ask his own.

"Why does he write you letters? How do you two know each other?"

"We're friends, Tommy. I haven't spoken to him in a while, and here I can see the reason why."

She tapped the paper still in the teen's hands with her finger.

"So what was the part about the powder you received just before Fundy left?" Niki asked in a voice that proved she knew exactly what the powder was.

Tommy just swallowed audibly, looking anywhere but at the woman in front of him.

Niki sighed in frustration.

"Alright, we'll talk about it later. Don't think you're off the hook, but there's something more important that I need to speak to you about."

Niki sat at the kitchen table, Tommy joining her almost immediately. He wondered what was more important than him breaking one of the main rules his teacher gave him, but that wondering didn't last long.

"From what I've read in that letter, it seems to me that you're ready to hear what I have to say and seriously think about my offer." Niki started, her face softening. Tommy thought she looked proud of him, and a warm feeling made his way into his chest.

"There is... A group of magic users. It's large and has all kinds of people in it - all different ages, from different places and families. It's called the Coven."

Tommy's eyes widened slightly. He remembered the conversation he and Tubbo had some time ago, and he had to fight a smile that threatened to appear on his face. It was finally happening, Niki was telling him about the Coven!

"A lot of young witches come there for protection and guidance, as well as to form connections with fellow magic users." The woman continued. "It's safe and completely free. There are meetings where more experienced witches help newly Grown ones adapt and you can rise your level of control over your magic significantly. The only thing you need to do is meet the person responsible for accepting new magic users and swear secrecy to them, so the only people you can tell about the Coven are other magic users."

Niki smiled and added, "It's completely fine if you decide not to join. There's no pressure and it's completely your choice. I know it may be difficult for you considering your... situation, so if you think it's not for you, I'll support you and still be your teacher no matter what. I'm just telling you this now because there's a big event happening in a little over a month where you can become a member, if you decide to do so."

Tommy pretended to think about it for a couple of minutes. Tubbo and Niki both were members of the Coven, the boy promised that Samhain thing was fun, and getting to learn more about magic did sound very appealing. In the end, the teen nodded firmly.

"I want to try it out. It sounds like a great deal to me."

Niki giggled and shook her head slightly.

"Don't decide things like that in just one minute, Tommy. Think about it for a couple of days. Then you can tell me your final answer."

The boy nodded and said "I will", but he already knew what that final answer was going to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's now half past 4am and I'm really sleepy, tell me if something is really weird at the end cause my eyes are half closed and I could've not noticed, lmao.  
> I wanted to say that maybe there won't be a chapter tommorow cause I've been thinking too much about another fic idea and I think I can actually write this one (the last two I tried to write just,,,, didn't go well, hope this one will be different), so will be spending time on that. Maybe there will be tho, idk, my brain is weird like that. Just a warning, I guess.  
> Thank you all for reading, I love seeing the reactions to things I write, you guys are so so nice<3 Hope you enjoyed the chapter :)


	22. The Arrival

The next month was a blur of activity. The first week was spent mostly just hanging out with Tubbo who really did recover almost completely while Tommy was away. The teen decided to tell both of his friends about the trip and what happened to Esther in detail since there was no point in hiding it from Niki as she already heard most of the story from Fundy. The shapeshifter didn’t know the woman knew Tommy personally, and that was the only thing stopping the boy from finding the man and cursing him into the next week for the hour-long lecture Tommy had to endure about putting himself into danger, not telling anyone about his plans to injure himself and just being very impulsive in general. At least it was interesting to see Tubbo try to hide his excitement from Niki and fail miserably only for the older witch to latch onto him as well, threatening them both with disappointment if they tried something like this in the future without at least asking her for advice first.

”I’m really not angry, Tommy,” the woman said quietly, looking right in the eyes of the horrified boy, “I’m just slightly upset about it.” The teen nearly burst into tears right then and there.

When the teens left Niki’s house, Tubbo said in a reverent whisper, “I’m never wronging her in my life. If you do something like that again and I find out, I won’t tell, I’ll just pretend I don’t know who you are for a while.”

”Agreed,” Tommy whispered back in the same tone of voice.

Techno decided that Tommy’s arm needed to heal first, so most parts of their physical training and practice duels were canceled for a time being. Instead the boy spent most of the time slowly going through the magic research books under the watchful eye of Wilbur and occasionally Phil, trying not to throw the incorrect and extremely boring tomes out of the window in frustration. Sometimes he managed to convince his family he had important tests to prepare for Niki and spent time catching up on actual witch-written books which wasn’t that much better if he thought about it, but at least those would be useful.

He also still had to get ready for history, math and geography tests because his teacher insisted that non-magical education was as necessary as the magical one which Tommy thought was absolutely not true, but Phil was paying for his lessons and checking in with Niki from time to time, so the teen had to comply. 

The best part was still the magic training with Tubbo. When Tommy told his friends he would join the Coven the older boy was really excited and mentioned Samhain again, just to refuse to tell the teen more about it to “not ruin the fun”, so Tommy didn’t know if he would have to pass some sort of test to join or use magic in general and he wanted to show everyone there he shouldn’t be messed with, just in case. Plus feeling the powers burn beneath the witch’s fingertips always put him in a great mood, all the world seemingly at his command. Sometimes he really wished his family could see him shake the ground and create hurricanes with a wave of his hand. Now he was even stronger than Techno, they could do so much together, if only they could accept it…

It was finally the day of the event, and Tommy was in equal measures excited and nervous. Niki asked him to bring the best clothes he owned to her house to change before they went, as well as something much more informal for something she refused to tell him about because Tubbo asked. The woman didn’t explain where and how exactly they were going, but Samhain was going to last the whole night so she told Phil Tommy will be spending the night at her place. When the teen got to his friend’s house with a bag with his formal shirt and trousers he saw that Tubbo was already there and wearing a nice-looking blouse with a jabot and light brown overalls with a green colored patch where the chest pocket would usually be, a dandelion crown on his head. Tommy raised his eyebrows and looked his friend up and down, to which the teen responded defensively,

”My sister got my only good pair of trousers dirty, so these had to do. Also, they’re comfortable and I think they look great!”

The younger boy burst out laughing and was about to start making fun of Tubbo’s appearance when Niki’s voice sounded from the bedroom.

“Did Tommy say something? Don’t Tubbo, you look very handsome.”

The woman entered the room and both teens smiled brightly. 

“Niki, you’re so pretty!” Tubbo commented and the witch smiled gratefully, turning left and right to show off her outfit.

Niki was wearing a light blue dress with short puffy sleeves decorated with lace and a sleeveless brown vest with silver buttons, a blue flower the name of which 

Tommy didn’t know tucked behind her ear. There was an air of lightness around her, the wavy folds of her clothes creating an impression of Niki being dressed in a gentle eastern breeze. 

“Thank you!” the witch looked over at Tommy. “Stop making fun of Tubbo and go change, we’re leaving soon and I still need to explain some things to you.”

Tommy’s mouth hung open in indignation.

”I didn’t even say anything!”

”You were about to and we all know it. Go, hurry!”

Tommy went into Niki’s room and took his nice clothes from the bag to get dressed. They were nothing special but comfortable enough that he didn’t feel the need to jump out of his skin, which he heard was a thing that happened with some of the more expensive attires. When he came back, all dressed up and ready to tackle whatever was about to happen during the night, the other two witches were still standing where he left them, Niki fixing up the collar of Tubbo’s shirt. The woman turned around to look at Tommy’s outfit and clapped her hands once in delight.

“This is so classy, I love it!”

”Of course, I’m awesome and so are my clothes,” the teen replied simply but smiled in return. “Anyway, what was it you wanted to tell me? Wouldn’t want to be late to whatever this is.”

”Oh, right! I actually wanted to tell you about our form of transportation. But before I do…”

The woman came and pinned a bright-colored poppy to the front of the teen’s shirt, right over his heart. The flower stood out like a bloodstain against the white fabric and Tommy touched its petals gently, nodding gratefully to his friend. 

“Alright. Usually the Coven meetings are local so that people can get there by themselves. But Samhain is special. Everyone who agrees to go should send a request to get an invitation. And here’s ours.”

The woman took an envelope from a table near her and opened it. Inside there were three thin pieces of wood bark with markings on each one of them. 

”These are our passes. They’re incredibly difficult to make and pretty easy to use because of that. There’s so much energy in each of these you could grow a small forest, but we’re going to use it to reach our destination.”

She passed the pieces to the boys and closed the door to her room.

”You just put your pass against the door, it’ll take the small amount of energy it needs by itself. Then you just go through, one person at a time. Who wants to come first?”

Tommy looked at the bark in his hand dubiously and glanced at Tubbo questioningly.

“I’ll do it. I already used it a couple of times, so I’m going to show Tommy how it works!” the older teen smiled and put his pass on the door above the handle, closing his eyes.

The room on the other side started glowing brightly, and when Tubbo opened the door there was nothing but bright white light which the boy stepped into without hesitation and closed the door behind himself. The glowing instantly disappeared, and when Tommy looked into the bedroom, there was no one there.

“Okay, I can do it,” the boy whispered to himself and slapped the bark onto the door with far more force than was necessary. He felt like he did when growing a small flower: just a slight amount of his magic dripping out and warming up the pass. Feeling the pull stop, Tommy turned the handle and walked into the blinding ocean of light, and when he opened his eyes again he found himself in a spacious room with high ceilings and giant stairs leading up to the second floor. There were people everywhere, all dressed up and talking to each other, hugging and laughing and being generally excited about the event. He also saw a couple of young people and teenagers who were, just like him, looking around in shock and curiosity, not quite knowing what to do with themselves. Then Tommy saw Tubbo standing next to the wall, waving him over enthusiastically, and the teen hurried to get closer to him to not get lost in the crown of the constantly arriving new guests.

When Tommy was standing near Tubbo he glanced back to where he came from and saw a giant arc full of the same light they had to step through to get here and after a moment Niki was there, gracefully getting out of it, her pass in her hand and a happy smile on her face. 

The boy heard beautiful music playing from the second floor, somewhere behind the doors that the stairs ended at. Tommy chuckled loudly and looked over at Tubbo who was giggling as well, unable to contain all that the boys were feeling at that moment. The teen was here for just a couple of minutes but was already impatient to see more.

Niki got closer to the boys and hugged them both briefly. 

”You made it, well done, Tommy! How are you feeling?”

Tommy touched his chest and head, as if checking if it was still there, and shrugged.

”It’s okay, I think. My eyes hurt a bit because that light is so fucking bright, but otherwise I’m fine. Should something be different?”

Niki answered, “No, that's perfect. We’re all good to go. The ballroom is upstairs, and all the guests are just arriving. There are so many people I want to meet up with and introduce to you!” the woman gestured for the friends to follow and moved towards the stairs. “I haven’t seen most of them for a while since they all live so far away, so I’m really happy to be here now. I’m sure my friends will be as happy to get to know you as I am.”

With that the group walked up and through the large doors, all ready to have a great time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly shorter chapter cause I have school tomorrow and have no sense of time, but there'll be lots of new (and not really) people in the next one, so I hope you tune it for it :)
> 
> Thank you v much for reading :D


	23. Old Faces, New Faces

The first thing Tommy noticed after entering the ballroom was just how enormous it was. Countless tables with various dishes stood along the walls, golden chandeliers lighted up even the farthest corners and you could only vaguely see the wall on the other end.

But the size of it was justified because of the sheer number of people constantly arriving and those that had already been there, standing near the tables and along the walls, glancing at each other and looking for familiar faces in the colorful crowd. And colorful it was - dresses, cloaks and suits of different types on very different magic users created an atmosphere of festivity that Tommy'd only ever heard of from stories and fairy tales but never got to experience until that moment.

The second thing was the noise. The sound was everywhere - clinking of glasses filled to the brim with bubbling drinks, laughter and exclamations of joy from the guests meeting someone they hadn't seen for a long time, music played by an orchestra not yet visible to the teen's eye surrounded and got under the skin in a way that wasn't exactly pleasant but still didn't seem like too much. Tommy couldn't decide where to turn, all the colors and conversations around the boy distracting and fascinating.

Niki also looked around, trying to spot someone in the crowd and after failing to do so glanced at the boys.

"I'm going to find some of my friends, please don't separate or we'll never find each other again. Let's meet up at the first table in 20 minutes, and you can tell me what you make of all of this. Tubbo, you've been here before, so look out for Tommy and make sure he doesn't get lost."

The older teen nodded firmly and took his friend's hand, leading him towards the center of the room.

"Where did this all come from? Does the Coven rob people for a living or something? This is huge and looks so damn expensive. Or is it all an illusion?"

"Some of it is, but mostly it's real so no one falls out of the building by accident. And I was wondering that too during my first Samhain, so Niki explained that witches are everywhere. Anyone can secretly be a magic user and you wouldn't know. Some of them are insanely rich, so they sponsor the event out of gratitude for the Coven's help. See him?"

Tubbo pointed at a person wearing a bright green cloak and laughing loudly at something said be a woman in a pink suit next to him.

"He's the nobleman with a huge inheritance from his deceased grandparents. He basically runs the town he lives in, the mayor asks him for advice on every important matter. I've talked to him the year I became a member, that's why I remember. He's quite friendly and did a lot of water tricks for me when he saw I was nervous because of the crowd."

Tommy hummed in understanding. And, when he looked closer, he did see the diversity among the people: a girl in a red silk dress with a silver diadem on her head was giggling near a boy in patched-up pants, a woman in a plain cheap dress whispering something to a young lady in an expensive-looking suit. 

They walked around for a while more, Tubbo pointing out people he talked to before, until Tommy remembered he hadn't eaten since morning and decided it was time to fix it.

"I'm starving, can we go and grab something to eat?" 

"Sure, we can stand and eat until Niki comes back. The food here is delicious, I'll tell you that much."

The teens started moving towards the table their friend made the meeting spot before going off and Tommy was turning his head around to catch more of the ballroom’s gorgeous interior, when suddenly someone crashed into the boy’s chest and nearly knocked them both over, Tommy just barely managing to stay on his feet and grab the other person’s shoulders to support them. The teen felt something cold soak through his shirt and glanced down only to see a burgundy stain that kept getting bigger with every passing moment. 

Tommy was about to yell bloody murder at someone who not only got into his way but also ruined his clothes, but closed his mouth when hesaw the person in front of him.

Their skin was a shade of black the teen’s never seen in his life, thin red veins coming up their hands and cheeks. There were no pupils in the stranger’s milk white eyes and they didn’t seem to be covered by eyelids. Long slightly curved horns the color of the person’s skin were peeking out from under the hood of their long black and red coat.

The teen swallowed, suddenly nervous. He’s never seen a demon’s true form before, and as fascinated as he was by it their appearance did seem slightly frightening. But that impression of power and intimidation was shuttered almost instantly when the demon’s empty eyes widened comically and a blush appeared on the stranger cheeks as he exclaimed in a high pitched voice,

”Oh my goodness, I’m so so sorry! I didn’t mean to, I’m really sorry, now your shirt is a mess. We need to soak it up right now, do you have something to change into? 

I can lend you my coat for a while if you don’t, I’m sorry, I hope that shirt wasn’t your favorite.”

Tommy’s never seen a person so apologetic and nervous, let alone over one spilled drink, but he did have to do something about his clothes and fast so he didn’t have time to wonder about it for too long.

”You’re a demon, right? Can’t you just… evaporate the wine out of it or something? Fuck if I know how demon magic works.”

“Language!” the demon exclaimed and put a hand over his mouth, now looking even more guilty, which the boy didn’t think was possible. “Sorry, a habit. But please don’t swear, it’s really not very nice.”

That one really stirred up Tommy’s anger with the last bit of fear at the sight of the man disappearing. 

”’Not very nice?’ You ruined my only good shirt, and then go say shit like that, as if I’m going to listen. Fucking demons, I met two of you and both are just the worst. Why don’t I ever meet cool demons?”

An impatient voice rang out from behind the group’s backs.

”Bad, what’s taking you so long? I’m thirsty!”

The boy took a very deep breath through his nose and turned around to see another, already familiar demon. This time he chose to appear in his true form: bright blue skin shining under the light of the chandeliers, short but sharp-looking horns sticking out of his messy hair.

“Speaking of right bastards,” Tommy mumbled.

”Hey, did you make new friends on the way and haven’t told me?” the blue-skinned demon asked the other, a mocking gleam in his eyes. “And who do we have… Tommy! You actually made it here, I’m surprised!”

”Hello, Skeppy.” The boy greeted through his teeth, moving closer to Tubbo and away from the man.

The older boy just looked very confused about everything said in front of him. He leaned in and whispered into his friend’s ear, “Do you know them?”

“Only the blue one. We crossed paths once, you could say,” Tommy whispered back, not taking his eyes off the pair of demons who were now talking about the situation.

“Alright, I’m feeling generous today. Come here, kid.”

”Do you think I’m stupid? I’m getting nowhere close to you, and I’m not-“ Tommy started but Skeppy completely disregarded what the boy had to say and snapped his fingers, the dirty spot on the witch’s shirt disappearing as it if it was never there in the first place. 

Bad gasped quietly, a smile appearing on his lips. “That was so cool, Sleppy! I mean,” the demon averted his eyes and swallowed audibly, “nothing special, I just thought it was nice of you to do that.”

”No problem, I know I’m great, no need to say that.” Skeppy replied smugly.

”Of course there isn’t,” Tommy commented dryly and touched the place on the fabric where the drink had been, “It’s an illusion, isn’t it?”

The white-eyed demon jerked visibly and licked his lips nervously, freezing in place. Tubbo glanced at the demon funny but didn’t say anything, while Tommy was still looking at Sleppy with unconcealed suspicion.

”No, who do you take me for? I’m very skilled at magic, I can make a simple stain disappear,” the demon answered, offended.

Tommy rolled his eyes and grabbed the older teen by the sleeve and pulled him after himself, going towards their original point of destination. 

”C’mon, Tubbo, Niki’s probably already there, let’s get as far away from those guys as possible. Fucking weirdoes.”

”Sorry again!” Bad told to the backs of the retreating witches one last time.

# # # # #

The boys spent the next 10 minutes standing near the table and stuffing their mouths with as many snacks as they could reach, the people standing near them all glancing at the teens dubiously before moving somewhere else. Tommy really didn’t care though: the food was so tasty he didn’t want to leave this exact spot ever again if he got to eat like this, and Tubbo seemed to wholeheartedly agree. From time to time one of the teens made some dumb comment about one of the guests or something completely unrelated just to watch the other choke on his drink while laughing hysterically. Just these moments, the food and the laughter and the comfortable rumble of the crowd all around the friends made this event worth it to Tommy.

Just when the boy was about to ask about Niki’s whereabouts, he heard the woman’s energetic voice somewhere to his right and turned in her direction with an excited smile only to have it fall slightly after seeing one of the people that was walking near his friend. The man’s ears and tail were out and twitching slightly. He looked relaxed and completely in his element, which Tommy couldn’t say about an extremely tall boy in a mask covering one side of his face trotting next to the duo and wringing his hands nervously.

At that moment Niki also noticed her boys standing at the table and waved before coming closer to them and smiling happily.

”I’m sorry for taking this long, hope you didn’t lose me. I just met some people and lost track of time. I want to introduce you, although I think some of you are already familiar.” She looked significantly at Tommy who widened his eyes as innocently as possible.

“Tommy and Tubbo, my friends and students.” she motioned in the direction of the teens. “Fundy, my old friend that I haven’t seen in a while, and Ranboo. He’s a half-demon who just found out about his heritage some time ago, so please be nice to him.”

The tall teenager sucked air trough gritted teeth with a sound and Niki glanced over at him, concerned.

”Oh, I’m sorry, was I not supposed to say that..?”

Ranboo shook his head, resigned. “Don’t worry, Niki, it’s okay. I’ll need to get used to this sooner or later. Nice to meet you both!” 

He smiled awkwardly at the witches, hiding his gloved hands behind his back and rolling on his hills back and forth in an uneasy motion. Tubbo smiled reassuringly at the half-demon, but Tommy was more interested in the shapeshifter next to him who was staring at the teen in shock.

"You want to say that the talented student you were telling me about was this guy?! The shouty child?” Fundy exclaimed finally, disbelief clear in his voice and facial expression.

“Yes! Tommy has made a lot of progress since he’d started training with me and Tubbo, so I’m very proud of him.” Niki smiled at her younger friend, the witch’s eyes shining warmly.

But the man was having none of it. He grabbed Tubbo by the shoulders and said quietly, “Tubbo. Why do you associate yourself with that child. I thought you were better than that.”

Tubbo looked to the side and answered uncertainly, “He’s… pretty funny?”

Tommy butted into the conversation. “Pretty funny? That’s all you’ve got to say? Also, why so unsure, Tubbo? Look who’s talking, mister “look at that boat spinning, hilarious, isn’t it?”

The older boy glanced at his friend indignantly. “You were laughing at it too! And I wasn’t unsure, I was just taken aback.”

”If you’re saying that the guy with a bad sense of humor just called you “funny”, seems to me it’s your problem more than his.” the shapeshifter snickered.

But before they could continue bickering, the cheery music the orchestra was playing before started dying down before stopping completely, and the buzz of the guests talking ceased almost completely. 

A sound of metal clinking against a glass rang through the ballroom, somehow reaching every side of it effortlessly and echoing against the walls. Everyone raised their eyes to look at a figure that was standing on a balcony near the center of the room. They were wearing a long green coat with its hood down and a white round mask with a smile and two dots for eyes drawn on it.

”Thank you all for joining us on this great night of Samhain. I’m very happy to see you here, safe and happy, young and old, magic users I know and those I haven’t yet had the pleasure to meet.”

The person looked around the ballroom ceremoniously and Tommy could’ve sworn their eyes lingered on him for longer than on any of the others.

”Who’s that?” the teen whispered to Tubbo.

The boy answered, “That’s the person who created the Coven. Some call him the Head Witch, others the High Priest. But to most of us he’s known as just Dream.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How am I still writing this and how is it just as bad. Sigh. I tried tho.  
> Anyway! Look at me, posting before 2am, whoo! I hope you enjoyed the chapter, I have no idea where all this is going and just a vague one on how it's going to end,,,, I'm so sorry.  
> Thank you for your continued support, kudos and comments! I love you<3


	24. A Warm Welcome

After the pause Dream spent looking at the guests, silent and assertive, he spoke again.

”You all know that today is a special day. Not only is it the day of harvest and nature, which are the things that feed us and give life to everything around us, but it is also a day of magic, of unity, a celebration of our abilities and connections. Turn around and take a look at all the people around you.” 

The room filled with motion, every magic user turning and noticing each other, some waving jokingly. Tommy glanced at Tubbo and Niki: his friends were smiling, love and care and pride visible in their faces and posture, and the boy felt himself fill with affection which he wasn’t prone to feel on the regular. The memory of that tree came to mind, but the teen pushed it away, instead enjoying the phantom feeling of his brothers’ hands in his hair, the sound of Wilbur’s gentle voice that he hasn’t heard in a long time singing lullabies into his ears, the memories of soft mornings when he and Phil were the only ones awake and the man told him stories of faraway lands, of heroes and mythical creatures the boy had grown to love. Eveyone around seemed to fill it too: Tommy heard someone sob softly to his left, and two witches to his right hugged each other so tightly he thought they were about to become one. 

The Head Witch continued,

”Do you feel it? We’re all here to protect and be safe, to love and receive love in return. You may not know each others’ names, never see each others’ faces, but we all that one thing in common: Earth chose us to sing its songs to, and we chose to listen. And there’s more and more of us, every day a witch Grows and learns about their powers, every week a demon learns about their heritage, and our goal as the Coven is to welcome them and make our future feel included in the present. And for that goal I invited a special guest today, someone many of us know and love even though we may never have seen them in person.”

The long black curtains behind Dream parted and a person in a long white cloak stepped onto the balcony, taking the hood off and smiling shortly at the crowd below. At least a dozen people gasped and Tommy listened as an excited murmur swallowed the ballroom like a tidal wave. He looked at the familiar face of the person on stage incomprehensively, undoubtedly happy to see them but confused about everyone’s reaction.

Tubbo got closer to him again and said quite loudly so the younger teen could hear him over the sounds of the surprised crowd, “This is Eret, one of the most famous witches of our generation. The most powerful and influential magic users come to her for advice, people often write to her when they need help. Nobody really knows if they’re part of the Coven or not because they’ve never appeared on Samhain celebrations or any events at all, but I guess this solves that issue.”

Tommy frowned and glanced at Niki, who was smirking cryptically, and raised his eyebrows at her in a silent question when the woman turned in his direction. She mouthed, barely audible to the boy, “I like my surprises.”

The teen didn’t mention any names while telling his story, to not accidentally reveal his connection to the hunters to Tubbo. Niki already knew but had agreed to be silent as well, just urging the boy to open up to his very best friend about his family’s occupation. Now he wasn’t quite sure how he should react to Eret’s appearance. It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to lie about knowing them if he wanted to actually come and speak to the witch, so Tommy decided he would say everything outright if Tubbo asked.

The noise of the crowd gradually became quieter and the guests looked at Eret, waiting for the witch to speak.

”Thank you, Dream,” the person turned away from the Head Witch and to the guests, their face open and gentle even with the band over their eyes.

“I’m very grateful to finally be here with you all. This is as beautiful as I heard it was, and I just want all the magic users that are here for the first time that I feel just as awkward as you probably do, if not even more so. Standing on this balcony sure is doing something to my confidence, and it’s not good.”

Tommy saw some of the younger guests close to him chuckle and relax slightly.

”So, teachers and mentors of newly Grown witches and demons who learned who they are recently, Dream and I will be waiting for you to introduce your protégés and friends for us to welcome them into the Coven. If you’re by yourself don’t hesitate to come to us as well and ask us questions you have, that’s what we’re here for. To everyone else, have a great night!”

The guests clapped as Dream and Eret waved goodbye and disappeared behind the curtains. The music started up again, some of the witches walking to the middle of the ballroom to dance together, and Niki grabbed Tommy and Ranboo by their hands, nodding to Fundy.  
”Can you watch Tubbo for me? I need to introduce those two to the High Priest.”

Ranboo obviously didn’t expect this turn of events and shook his head nervously as the half-demon was led away by the woman.

”This is really not necessary, I will come to them myself… In an hour or two, when there are fewer people…” he muttered to the witch.

”I don’t think they’ll be there in two hours, Ranboo.” Niki chuckled, still walking determinately towards the balcony. “It’ll be okay. You’ll introduce yourself, say your vows and we’ll go our own way, if you don’t like me. I just don’t want you to deal with this alone, it can be really nerve-wracking.”

The teen’s eyes widened and he hurried to reassure the witch. “I’d love to spend more time with all of you, but you do have your own friend to introduce, I don’t want to be a bother.”

Tommy glanced at the boy and saw him looking anywhere but at the witches and smiled encouragingly, “You can have Niki all to yourself, it’s not like I’ll need her. I’m great with people, they’ll love me instantly.”

Ranboo laughed despite himself and Niki gasped, mockingly offended.

”I raise you, help you get better, and this is what I get for my troubles? It’s so hard being a mother…”

The half-demon seemed to unwind listening to Tommy and Niki bicker and so the teen considered his mission accomplished. He absolutely could have a great time here alone since he really was quite good at talking to people he’d never met, but the witch understood the confusion and uncertainty of learning more about yourself and couldn’t imagine not having anyone by his side during that time.

The group got close to Dream and Eret who were standing on the slightly lower steps of stairs leading up to the room behind the balcony. A little girl in a flowery dress was walking away from the witches with a proud smile on her face, an old woman holding her hand and smiling at her affectionately. 

”Eret, hi! I didn’t expect to see you here, I’m so glad you finally decided to join us mere mortals.” Niki stepped in front of them and wrapped her arms around the person.

The witch smiled widely as soon as she heard the woman’s voice and hugged her back, Tommy and Ranboo watching silently.

”Hi, Niki! It’s nice to be here, not going to lie. Did you have a student you wanted to introduce?”

”I have two little ducklings with me, actually, and I believe you know at least one of them.”

”What in the world did you call me?”

Eret laughed, his voice deep and highly amused.

”Of course you would find someone like Tommy to take under your wing. Didn’t expect any less of you.”

Tommy looked between the older witches, bewildered. “What is that supposed to mean?”

”Hello, Tommy. Can I call you that?”

Tommy turned at the sound of the voice and remembered that Eret wasn’t the only one they came here to talk to. Dream was standing there, his hands behind his back, his expression unreadable because of his mask but the tone of his words friendly enough.

”Um, sure thing, Big D. Can I call you Big D?”

The boy heard someone choke on air next to him but didn’t bother with checking who it was. The Head Witch was silent for a second before laughing in a high-pitched voice, breathless and almost soundless. 

”I mean, it’s okay, but I’d really prefer Dream.” Dream calmed down after a moment. “I’ve heard a lot about you, actually. Happy to finally meet you in person.”

Tommy wondered where the man could’ve heard about him but remembered that Eret was standing right next to them and decided it was probably him that shared the story about Esther with the High Priest, the thought of which helped him relax.

”And what’s your name?” Dream asked Ranboo who was silent until that moment and snapped his head up only to turn his gaze away right after making eye contact.

”It’s Ranboo… sir?” the teen said questioningly.

”Just Dream is fine, Ranboo. Congratulations on learning about your heritage! I know it can be tough, but there’s a lot of people willing to help and guide you, me being one of them.”

Ranboo swallowed. “Thank you. I hope to know more about myself in the future.”

”I’m sure you will.”

Eret interrupted the conversation to say, “I’m sure we’ll find time to talk later, but I feel like there’s still a lot of people we need to meet, so we should probably get to the vows.”

Dream nodded and reached his hand out to Tommy, Eret doing the same with Ranboo.

“The only thing you need to do is take the hand and say ‘I accept’, we’ll be doing all the work. You won’t be able to tell anyone about the Coven’s existence unless they already know of it, are a member or if you’re planning on inviting them in. A small black star will appear on your palm for fixation, but don’t worry, it will vanish in three days after the vows set in. Ready?”

The teens nodded simultaneously and took the offered hands. Tommy felt his palm heat up slightly.

”I accept.”

Dream’s mask was right in front of the witch’s face, its black eyes staring into Tommy’s soul, and he tried to shake off the feeling of unease. He looked at his palm and saw a small star close to the thumb, standing out against his pale skin. The teen glanced over at Ranboo and saw him look at his hand with wonder, the half-demon clearly more curious about the mark than Tommy was.

Dream clapped his hands together and told the boys, “Welcome to the Coven! You won’t regret it.”

He looked at Niki and told, “The fires are being lit now, so there’s an hour more and then you can go and change. Let the night be long and kind.”

The woman smiled, “Let the night be long and kind. Goodbye, Dream! Bye, Eret!”

As the group was walking away from the balcony, Tommy’s brain finally caught up with what was said a minute ago.

”Wait. What fires?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> M a n this story is a fever dream, and not the good kind. 
> 
> The updates will get a bit less regular cause school started and all the teachers are trying to get my ass right from the beginning. Also, I've started a new fanfic about neurodivergent piglin!Techno, it's completely self-indulgent and doesn't have a lot of plot, just things I come up with to unwind. It's called "Sounds, Movements, Feelings", give it a read if you're interested! Two chapters so far, third on the way.
> 
> Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed<3


	25. Appearances

Tubbo was still waiting at the table when Niki, Ranboo and Tommy came back and explaining something to Fundy, throwing his hands around rapidly. The man had a notebook and a pencil out, writing things down and nodding excitedly from time to time. The witches were joined by the green-robed man Tommy had been told about before by his friend. The stranger was pointing at the paper in Fundy’s hands, the group completely lost in their discussion until Tommy from behind Tubbo’s back and put his chin onto the older boy’s head forcefully, making him yelp in pain.

”I’m a Coven boy now, what do you make of that?”

While Tubbo was still rubbing the spot on his head and didn’t react, the man he was speaking to raised his eyes from the notebook and gave Tommy a friendly smile.

”Welcome! Are you Tommy? Tubbo said you were getting introduced to Dream, congratulations on becoming a member! My name is Sam, by the way.” Sam looked over at the shorter teen and chuckled. “Also, I think you just shattered Tubbo’s scull.”

The boy groaned and lifted his chin up, shaking his head in mock disappointment. “Sure, just laugh at my pain, why don’t you.”

”Stop being a baby, Tubbo, you’re just impossible,” Tommy mumbled overdramatically and turned to glance at where Fundy and Sam were standing. “What are the three of you doing here, anyway? We left like 10 minutes ago, when did you all become best friends?” 

”We actually talked before, you know.” Fundy answered for everyone and turned his notebook around to show the boy. “We’ve been discussing a water purification machine and trying to minimize the usage of potions needed for it. Tubbo made a prototype, but there’s a lot of it needed for just a small amount of liquid cleaned, but using a potion along with the mechanism is just so much faster, so…”

Tommy peered down onto the page that was covered almost completely in schematic drawings, calculations and scribbled shortenings of words. He listened to the shapeshifter ramble on about science for a good minute before interrupting him and saying with a blank face, “You’re speaking in numbers, stop it. It makes me feel dumb, and I’m not dumb.”

Sam laughed and clapped a bewildered Fundy on the shoulder. “Well, no offense, but it does seem like it a little bit.”

”Oh, you think just because you’re rich and powerful you can go around insulting people?” Tommy grabbed one of Ranboo’s gloved hands. “Since I’m not welcome here, Ranboo is my new best friend and we’re leaving to have fun somewhere else.”

Ranboo smiled hesitantly and replied to no one in particular, “Yeah, what he said. It’s going to be great.”

Niki, who was watching the scene unfold, amused, finally decided to step in. “It’s okay, boys, we still have things to do and see. But we actually do need to go somewhere else right now, so I’ll have to take the boys with me.”

The younger teen perked up and smiled in anticipation. “Is that the bit about fires that you refused to tell me about?”

”You’re way too excited about possibly burning something down.” 

”I’d say I’m not excited enough, right Ranboo?”

”Sure,” the half-demon commented, obviously resigned. “Arson? Love that.”

”See, he knows what’s up.”

”Ranboo, do you have comfortable clothes you can change into?” Niki asked with concern.

The teen shook his head, indifferent. “These are good enough, don’t worry about it.”

Tubbo, who finally recovered from his Tommy-inflicted trauma, made a show of looking Ranboo up and down and said with his eyebrows raised, “This is a three-piece suit.”

The boy folded his arms over his chest self-consciously. “You have something against three-piece suits?”

”I’m wearing overalls with a messily covered hole in them, what do you think?” Tubbo countered. 

”Touché.” Ranboo shrugged, defeated. “But I still don’t have any other clothes with me; I really wasn’t sure about coming here at all.”

”Actually, I think I can help you out with that.” Sam spoke up. “I have a set of spare clothes. We’re about the same height, maybe they would fit you?”

Niki clapped her hands once and said, “It’s settled then. We’ll go and change clothes while the halls aren’t as crowded as they’re going to be in the next half an hour and then come and meet up right outside. Sam, I take it Ranboo’s with you?”

After confirming the plans with everyone and saying temporary goodbyes, Niki, Tommy and Tubbo moved to the other end of the ballroom, dodging dancing guests, until they reached another set of double doors and walked through.

”Does that mean the party’s over? I’m not an expert, but wasn’t it kind of short?” Tommy wondered as they walked down the hallway past countless doors with various nametags on them.

”Oh no, the party will continue until the morning, but only after midnight. Before that we have something much more interesting, if I say so myself.”

Eventually, the group stopped next to a door with a sign saying “Niki” and entered the room. It was small and had no furniture but three changing screens in different corners of it. After throwing on his old worn shirt, loose trousers and a vest, Tommy walked out into the hall to wait for his friends there. As the boy was wondering if maybe he should’ve taken something warmer to wear outside and why no one warned him about that part of the event, he heard hushed voices in the distance that sounded vaguely familiar. He considered not listening in, but then remembered that being a good person wasn’t one of his priorities and got close to the wall, thankful for the dim lighting that was enough for him to hide in the barely-there shadows.

”I’m sorry, but I couldn’t just walk by when it was my fault.”

”No, but you could, and you should’ve! If anyone finds out about you, we’re getting our asses kicked so hard we won’t be able to walk for the next month, and that would still be the best outcome.”

"Language. And I understand, that’s why I’m saying sorry. I really don’t think anyone suspects that I’m not actually a de…”

There was a sound of a struggle and Tommy leaned in, trying t catch the softer part of the conversation.

”…say it louder, I don’t think Dream himself heard you!” one of the voices whispered frantically.

”I’m sorry,” the second voice repeated.

”Okay, let me fix your illusion a bit and then we can move out to the fires. I have an important role there, you know.”

The teen whispered “what the actual fuck” under his breath, but it turned out it wasn’t as quiet as he thought it was as suddenly one of the people talking moved down the hall in his direction. The witch tried to get back into the changing room but it was too late.

”What the hell are you doing here?”

There in front of him were a terrified-looking Bad and a very angry Skeppy, staring right at Tommy and waiting for him to explain himself.

”Oh, hey… demons, I only just walked out of this room with very thick walls, didn’t expect to see you hear! How’s your evening going?” the teen leaned against the wall as nonchalantly as possible, but his impression of complete innocence obviously failed as small blue fire enveloped Skeppy’s clenched fist.

”If I see you saying a word of this to anyone… I won’t actually hurt you, only because you’re Techno’s little brother and I don’t want him to be upset, but you’re on some really thin ice.”

Tommy swallowed nervously and asked, “What’s the big deal? He’s not a demon, so what?”

Bad shushed him, and Skeppy raised one of his eyebrows. “You really don’t know? Non-magic people aren’t allowed in here. They’re considered a threat, and not without a reason, really. I spent so much time getting the pass to work for Bad, and I probably won’t ever do it, but I just wanted him to see the fire dance.”

”I won’t do anything dangerous, I’m just here cause I’m Skeppy’s friend. I respect all magic users, but I understand if you don’t want me here.” the not-so-real demon added.

”No, you’re staying.” The blue-colored demon told his companion and then turned back to Tommy. “I kept your secret, so have some decency and keep mine. Come on, Bad, we’re leaving.”

As soon as the men turned the corner the door to Niki’s changing room opened and two witches stepped out, wearing some light white cloaks. They kept the flowers they were wearing before on them, but Tommy started shivering just by looking at the way his friends were dressed.

”Why are you wearing bedsheets? It’s almost the end of autumn, you’re going to freeze to death in this weather.”  
Niki and Tubbo exchanged glances and smiled excitedly.

”Don’t worry, Tommy,” the woman replied to the teen’s concerns. “It’s going to be really warm where we’re going.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this is so small, I'm just lazy as heck. The next chapter will be the end of the Samhain arc, I promise :) All this writing business is really something else.  
> Thank you for reading, have a nice day<3


	26. Fires

The hall they were walking through towards the exit was completely empty. The closer they got to the door at the end of it, the chillier it got, and Tommy could see Niki and Tubbo cover. He wondered if they were still as fine with wearing a literal bedsheet as the only piece of clothing as they'd been minutes ago.  
Finally, having come down a flight of stairs far less fancier than the ones at the entrance, the witches reached the exit and stepped outside.

The building turned out to be surrounded by a dark forest, the only thing visible over the tree tops being the incredibly tall mountain range far enough away that it seemed knee-high. The night was bright, millions of stars scattered around the sky, some bigger than others and emitting twice the amount of light. Tommy'd never been a big fan of astronomy, but he could admit that the sight was absolutely stunning. But despite the sky and the clearing around the group being lit up by the stars, the teen couldn't see anything beyond the treeline, a dark wave swallowing up all colors and living a frightening lifeless void. If Tommy didn't have magical abilities and couldn't distantly hear the forest and the creature inside it live their lives, he would've thought it was an entirely superficial wall made out of black non-transparent glass.

The stars weren't the only source of light: all over the clearing small fires were burning, pale orange light around them warm and inviting, but Tommy really wouldn't call them "hot" if those were the thing Niki had been talking about near the changing room. The boy's scarcely dressed friends were standing close to one of the tiny bonfires, their hands outstretched over it in search of warmth.

”Don't want to ruin your fun,” Tommy commented, “but the only thing that’s hot around here is me.”

“You’re so humble,” Tubbo replied with a stutter, his teeth starting to chatter.

“I’d give you my vest but there are two of you, so it’s just fair to leave it for myself.”

”Of course it is,” Tubbo mumbled, stepping from one foot to another in an attempt to get warm.

Tommy was kidding and was just thinking of which one of his friends he should actually give the piece of clothing to, but in the end the boy didn’t have to decide because Sam and Ranboo came up behind him, both dressed in clothes as light as Niki and Tubbo’s and carrying white woolen blankets. Niki smiled at the sight of them and accepted the blankets with a grateful nod before passing one of them to the boy next to her.

”You’re a savior, Sam. I love those blankets.”

“Sorry for taking so long, had to find something bigger for the giant over here,” the man gestured at Ranboo with his thumb, making the teen smile awkwardly. “And I’d said before that you can take one as a gift if you like them so much.”

Tubbo turned the woman around only for Tommy to hear him whisper furiously, “We refused one time out of politeness. This year? I’m not doing that.”

The teen wrapped his blanket tighter around his frame and looked at Sam, determined. “Thank you very much for the present, we’ll be keeping those.”

Being the only person without a blanket, Tommy felt compelled to dive under Tubbo’s. Thankfully the material was long enough and cover both of them, but that didn’t stop the friends from elbowing each other in the sides a few times before finally settling while Niki was thanking the generous witch. The wool was heavy but criminally warm and nice to the touch. The magic users continued talking and exchanging stories for quite a while and the boy was getting sleepy, his head tilting down to fall against the older teen’s. Tommy was starting to think if falling asleep standing up really was such a bad idea, when his musings were interrupted by someone coughing politely from his right. The teen straightened up and looked around: people were slowly coming outside in groups, most wearing thin gowns or shirts and pants. Some had blankets or cloaks thrown carelessly over their shoulders, others just jumping around to keep themselves warm, laughing at each other’s ridiculous movements. They were surrounding the bonfires, the clearing slowly but surely filling up.

After taking everything in, Tommy actually turned back to the source of the sound that got his attention in the first place and saw the Head Witch standing there in all his questionable glory, the strange mask and the cloak unchanged. Dream hid his hands in the folds of his clothes, probably to keep them warm, so the sleeves of the cloak were hanging empty, the weak wind blowing them back and forth.

”Hello again, Tommy. I wanted to catch you before other guests got here, but there’s a lot of new members this year so the greetings took longer than I expected.” The witch explained to the still groggy teen. “Could I maybe speak to you? Somewhere a bit more private.” 

Tommy turned to Niki in his confusion and saw his friend show him a thumbs up encouragingly, so the teen shrugged and slipped from under the blanket, mumbling a quick “I'll be back” before following Dream to one of the few unoccupied fires farther away from the building. 

Dream stood next to the fire, his mask lit up with the warm light of it, his sleeves blown backwards and waving gently. 

”I heard quite a lot about you from Eret,” the witch started, still staring at the flames before him. “She told me you have great potential.”

Tommy frowned incomprehensively. “Thanks, I guess..? I mean, of course I do, but I don’t see what there is talk about.”

”Actually, I have a proposition for you, Tommy. I assume Niki told you about the study meetings with more experienced magic users?” he waited for Tommy to nod before continuing. “I decided that I want to take a bigger part in educating new witches, so I’m looking for students to give private lessons to. Just two or three people, I’m really busy most of the time.”

Tommy repeated the phrase mockingly only to snap his mouth shut with a click when Dream turned towards the boy and asked, “So what do you think? I have one student already and I’d like you to be the second one. It would be worth it, I guarantee.”

Tommy looked back at where Niki was standing, clutching her blanket tightly and talking animatedly to Sam and Ranboo. The man seemed to hear his thoughts and hurried to reassure the boy.

”I won’t replace Niki, don’t worry. She’s your friend and the first teacher, I know how important that connection is. You can still train with her, I’ll just help you with more complex things she may not know.”

”Can I have a couple of days to sleep on it? How can I contact you, by the way? I don’t even know where you live. Do you live here?”

“If you agree, I’ll definitely have a way for us to meet.” Dream replied to Tommy’s concerns, “I’ll write Niki a letter she can pass to you in three days’ time, she’ll help you send one back. Think about it. I’ll be waiting.”

With that Dream walked off to another bonfire and started speaking casually to a group of red-coloured demons, leaving Tommy confused and more awake than he’d been all evening.

The witch returned to his friends and tugged onto Niki’s blanket, impatient to talk to her about the offer he got, but before the woman could react Tommy stopped. He noticed a commotion near the entrance of the building, demons coming over from all the corners of the clearing and standing next to each other. The boy spotted Skeppy and Bad in the crowd, the men whispering to each other and ignoring the demons around them. Tommy wondered if it was as nerve-wracking for Bad to be surrounded by actual demons as it was for the witch to live in a house full of witch hunters. He couldn’t even decide which one was worse: having the threat be unfamiliar or literal members of your family.

His moral debate was cut short when the witches backed off from the fires and the demons, on the contrary, came near them and raised their hands in the air. Tubbo took Tommy’s hand and dragged him away as well, letting Skeppy and Bad take their place. Ranboo wanted to follow the other boys but the blue demon stopped him by standing in front of him. The tall teen froze in place and Tommy heard Skeppy say, 

”You’re new, aren’t you?”

The half-demon nodded nervously and flinched when the man grabbed his wrists and raised his hands up.

”Hold them like this and concentrate the energy in the palms like you usually would, and clap when I say to. Take the fire as the target, I’ll guide the magic so you don’t burn down the forest by accident. This is gonna look really cool, don’t you worry.”

Ramboo looked as confused as Tommy felt, the tall teen complying with the demon's request. His hands were shaking slightly in the man's grip.

"Clap your hands on the count of three. One,"

the crowd of witches around them fell silent

"Two,"

the guests tensed up, their anticipation palpable and infective

"Three."

Skeppy snapped the fingers of his free hand as Ramboo put his hands together with a loud sound, and to Tommy's surprise the flames of the fire that was barely there before rose up like a tidal wave, roaring and crackling with magic energy. A wall of hot air knocked the air out of the boy's lungs, his eyes watering as one by one the demons clapped their hands overhead and made the small bonfires come to life and move in a deadly but mesmerizing dance.  
In a matter of seconds the clearing became as bright as if it was noon, the shadows and the darkness of a moonless night gone in a flash. Tommy felt like the stars had fallen down on earth, hot and white in their all-consuming light. 

Instantly the crowd erupted in a deafening cheer, the witches applauding and watching the fires with child-like wonder. It seemed that even though many of them had seen it many times before, the sight never quite gets old. 

Such obvious, powerful and proud display of magic, the celebration of it filled Tommy with joy. There was no need to cover it up and no real way to - the flames high up in the sky and melting it like a dark precious metal, licking the clouds' soft gray sides, seemingly endless and impossible to put out. There was something about all of it that made the teen feel safe, as if the fire beams would protect him and his loved ones from any danger that may come for them. The demon's stepped away, most of them grinning proudly and congratulating each other on a job well done. Tommy caught sight of Ramboo who was staring at his gloves hands with disbelief. The boy could understand his emotions: the half-demon obviously hadn't done magic on a scale that large before, the fire he lit up reaching even higher up than any others, and now the boy probably just wasn't sure how he managed to create something so amazing.

All the demons distanced themselves from the fires, younger ones seeking approval from their mentors and bragging to their friends. Tommy heard a girl next to him argue loudly with someone about comparing the heights of their flames, the conversation reminding the teen pleasantly about his and Tubbo's mock duels. 

The teen noticed everything absent-mindedly, seeing the movement out of the corner of his eye and not paying close attention to people around him. He was still watching the fires writhe when Niki tapped him gently on the shoulder and nodded towards the fire Ranboo and Skeppy had charmed mere minutes ago.

"It's our turn," she told the boy and walked to the fire, looking over her shoulder to make sure him and her other student were following. Tommy saw that they weren't the only witches getting closer to the flames - he noticed the old woman he'd met earlier before his first encounter with Dream lead the excited little girl to one of the smaller fires and stop right before it. Niki did the same and after both boys stood next to her, the woman pulled out Tommy's poppy and put it into his open palm, the pin from it now gone. 

"Put all the energy into the flower like you did with the pass before," the witch advised. "When I tell you to, throw it into the fire."

Tubbo took the flower crown off his head and smiled at Tommy challengingly, the boy’s head tilted to the side slightly.

”We’ll do it together. Do you trust me?”

”’Course I do,” the teen replied and turned his face back to the fire, tightening his hand on the poppy and feeding the bright flower as much magic as he was comfortable with. He felt the petals of the flower move inside of his clenched fist as it came to life once again. It wasn’t like Tommy got attached to a decorative flower, but he hoped it was worth it. It looked quite nice on his shirt and it was Niki who gave it to him, but if his friends told him to do it, then it was probably okay. 

As the energy was floating through Tommy’s veins, warming him up from inside just like the fire was from the outside, Niki pointed to the middle of the clearing for the boys to look. Dream was standing there with his hands finally back where they belonged, Eret near him. Both witches were holding small untied leather bags. They took handfuls of powder out of them and Tommy noticed that all the guests were watching the witches intensely, as if waiting for something. And they didn’t have to wait for long. Dream and Eret threw the powder into the fire in front of them, and Tommy heard Niki exclaim,

”Now!”

He turned around and did the same with his poppy, Tubbo following suit with his dandelions. For a moment nothing happened and Tommy wondered if it was just some weird tradition, but then the fire turned even lighter and it turned first blood red and then yellow in turns before the colors settling alongside each other, balanced and . The teen’s mouth fell open in wonder as the red and yellow flames danced just before his eyes, beautiful and somehow not threatening despite the heat and the aggressive blood-like colour. Part of his magic, his very core was there in the fire, fueling it. Him and Tubbo weren’t allowed to practice with fire at home because Niki was absolutely sure they would burn the town to ashes and not without a reason, so this was the closest Tommy’d ever gotten to fire magic and it was just as exciting as the witch expected it to be. But their fire wasn’t the only colorful one – all around the group the flames were turning red and blue and purple, younger witches and demons jumping up and down, their adult supervisors holding them tightly as if expecting the children to touch the fire in front of them.

It was getting incredibly hot, sweat dripping down Tommy’s forehead and the air around the fires crackling and distorted. Now the teen understood what Niki was talking about in the hallway, the shirt clinging to his skin and the vest horribly heavy and restricting. 

”You can take it off if you want to, it’ll only get warmer from now on.” Tubbo said to his friend and threw his woolen blanket on the ground far away from any of the fires, Niki doing the same with hers. Tommy shrugged and got rid of his outerwear, adding it to the growing pile.

”Ranboo, Sam, come here! Oh, Fundy, would you like to join us?” Niki yelled to be heard over the buzz of the crowd as she noticed her friends close by. 

Everyone moved closer to the center where the unique green fire was burning, charmed by Eret and the High priest. The guests were standing a circle around it, laughing and bouncing excitedly. 

”And what do we do now?” Tommy asked, confused and full of energy.

”We run!” Tubbo told him and grabbed his hand, dragging him around the bonfire behind himself. Dozens of circles were forming and spiraling, the magic users throwing their coats off and moving from one person to another. Tommy briefly saw a couple kiss, the demon girls that were arguing earlier now running after each other with smiles on their faces, Dream and Eret stepping to the side to watch the crowd have fun, but all of it barely registered as Tubbo yelled “Catch me!” from another side of the clearing and the teen's adrenaline kicked in.

They ran into countless guests but they either didn’t notice or didn’t mind, the people bumping into each other and instantly being dragged into elaborate dance patterns. Tommy ran out of breath more times than he could count, but the overall feeling of belonging and power gave him the strength to keep going for a long time before he finally leaned against a tree in exhaustion, Niki and Fundy falling next to him. The teen could still see Tubbo and Ranboo near a blue fire close by, the boys jumping and clapping their hands. Tommy really couldn’t understand where they were getting the energy from, but he was still happy to see the half-demon finally relaxed and open. There were spots in front of his eyes that definitely weren’t there before and the boy’s head was beginning to hurt. Just before his eyes could close completely, Tommy noticed the Head witch standing not that far from his group. A raven of a dirty color sat down on the man’s shoulder and shook its wings as Dream turned his masked face towards it. It was impossible to tell if he was speaking because of the noise, but the teen thought he was.

"You know, I’m probably going to sound crazy,” Tommy mumbled to no one in particular, “but that bird seems awfully familiar.”

He wanted to remember, something important about the raven just at the back of his mind, but the boy was so terribly tired. He could think about it in the morning, Tommy decided, as he put his head on Niki’s shoulder and fell into a deep sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Firstly, I'm so sorry about the delay. I didn't expect the break to be that big, I hope you didn't lose me, hehe.  
> Secondly, I wrote almost the entirety of this chapter while listening to 100 gecs and it probably shows. Please forgive me. My brain is a mush rn.  
> Thirdly, I hope you enjoyed this at least to some extent, I know it's probably incomprehensible but a girl can dream. Thank you for reading and leaving kudos/comments, you're great :D  
> I'll go into some negative personal stuff about the work under the line, so you can just stop here and go on with your day. Wish you the best!
> 
> # # # # #
> 
> Okay. I'm not in a great place regarding my mental health, and thinking about this work made me feel really bad for quite some time. Not because I don't like writing it, but because I don't like the way it's written. I also started writing this just to put my ideas somewhere so having so many people read this surprised me and added some pressure which was fine while I was feeling better. I won't abandon it because I didn't spend more than 100 hours on it just to drop it halfway through. Plus there are still so many scenes I've wanted to write from the start, so there's that. The updates will probably be not as frequent as before, but 10 days is really too much for me, lmao. The kind comments you guys leave mean so much to me, they're the reason I feel slightly better about my writing, so I'm eternally grateful for them<3 I probably won't be answering some of them now cause it's kinda difficult for me to do, but if you have any questions regarding the story - I'll 100% answer them!  
> Alright, enough complaining. Have a nice day<3


	27. Sleepover

Tommy woke up with a groan because of someone gently shaking him by the shoulder. He opened his watery eyes halfway through, wincing at the light, and saw Niki's silhouette hovering over him.

"Wake up, Tommy. Tubbo is getting tired so we decided to go home early. You can go back to sleep once we're at my house."

The teen yawned and stretched his muscles, sore from sleeping on bare earth, and noticed a woolen blanket slip off of him as he moved. The woman probably covered him so he wouldn't get cold, and for good reason: Tommy was drenched in sweat as he was falling asleep because of all the running, and now every blow of the wind made him shiver uncomfortably.

Niki passed the boy his vest and he put it on without hesitation, waiting impatiently for it to warm up. Tubbo was standing next to them, the second blanket wrapped around his shoulders and his head tilting dangerously to the side, making it look like his neck was about to snap in half. Tommy noticed that most of the guests had left, only a handful still standing near much smaller and bleaker fires and talking in calm quiet tones, clearly exhausted after the dancing.

"Has everyone else left already?" the teen asked after taking in his surroundings.

"No, they went back to the ballroom. Samhain lasts all night, and after the fires everyone goes in to eat and talk some more."

The witch looked over at the building wistfully, the expression on her face regretful, and Tommy frowned.

"Then why are we leaving if the party's still going?"

The woman raised her eyebrows and glanced at the older boy who nearly fell over after blinking for too long, but managed to stay upright with help of some higher forces. The other boy nodded in understanding, but then an idea appeared in his mind.

"But why can't we go back by ourselves? We'll crush in your kitchen and most likely won't magic the house out of existence, and you can stay here and have fun with your weird furry friend." Tommy offered. "You don't mind, right, Tubbo?"

The older teen nodded slowly, clearly not paying enough attention to mind anything at that moment.

Niki looked taken aback at her friend's words, but she obviously considered it.

"I actually think it's a good idea, it's just..." she hesitated, "When Tubbo first came here he was 13 and I couldn't leave him alone, could I? Kids grow up too fast..."

She brushed off a non-existent tear, but Tommy noticed genuine wonder in the woman's face. She did look after the boy since the day he Grew, teaching and guiding him, so Niki was probably used to keeping an eye on him as a child. In the end she nodded, still looking slightly unsure, and led the still groggy boys back into the building and through the halls to the changing room.

"Here are your passes," the witch told the teens and gave them the familiar pieces of tree bark, the writing on them half-erased and even less legible than it'd been the first time. "You can take the pillows from my bed, I'll be back at dawn and take your clothes with me. Please don't destroy anything while I'm not there."

Tommy shrugged. "We won't. Unless we do, but that's a different story."

Niki looked like she regretted the decision immensely, but decided to go through with it, the first portal opening and Tubbo stumbling through the doorway.

"Say bye to everyone for me," Tommy asked before opening the door for himself and entering the white nothingness only to step out back in the hallway of Niki's house right in front of her bedroom.

Tommy hadn’t ever seen his friend’s house quite so dark and quiet. There weren’t any windows in the hall, the only light coming from the one in the kitchen. But the house still seemed familiar and safe, 

The teen saw the silhouette of Tubbo slumped against the wall, leaving almost no shadow due to the sparse lighting of the house.

"Go to the kitchen, I'll grab us pillows." Tommy told the other boy and opened the door to the bedroom to see it be the same as that one time he caught a glimpse of it when waiting for Niki to come out: a wardrobe, a comfortable-looking bed, a painting on the wall - the usual things expected from it. But after seeing that exact room being swallowed by a blinding white light of a portal, it was hard to return back to reality.

The witch took the pillows and a blanket, just in case the ones Sam gave them weren't enough, from the bed, and dragged them all over to the kitchen where Tubbo was already sitting on the floor and rocking back and forth, either to lull himself to sleep or to stay awake, Tommy wasn't sure. He dumped everything on his friend's head and spread out a woolen covering on the floor so it wouldn't be as hard to sleep on and plumped down onto it, watching as Tubbo moved over and put one of the pillows under his neck.

Tommy wasn't used to sleeping next to someone who wasn't his family so it was pretty hard to relax. It wasn't that he didn't trust his best friend, but it was still unfamiliar territory, a line the boy wasn't ready to cross. When he had still been living in the streets he tried to keep his distance from other wanderers. Grown men and young teenagers alike were dangerous to the scrawny malnourished child, many of them ready to snap his neck at a moment's notice for a piece of moldy bread. Hiding away to sleep was something natural, and even though the nights were cold and lying down next to warm bodies and the fires was extremely tempting, the fear of getting strangled in his sleep outweighed the desire to get warm. Old battered blankets he managed to snatch up did a good enough job, seeing as he didn't freeze to death in his sleep in all those years.

The teen tossed and turned in his makeshift bed for what felt like hours, the last remnants of sleepiness gone and the boy's thoughts going a mile a minute. The flashes of the night kept playing before Tommy's eyes, the fires, the elaborately dressed magic users - all those memories kept the boy awake and energetic, until he just couldn't continue on like that all by himself.

"Tubbo," he whispered loudly, and poked a bundle of a blanket where the other teen was lying, "Are you sleeping?"

The only response Tommy got after a minute of continuous bothering was a muffled long-suffering groan, but the stubborn witch didn't stop there. He shook his friend until finally Tubbo's head became visible from under the covers, his hair a complete mess and an annoyed expression on the older boy's face.

“Well, not now I’m not.” Tubbo mumbled and turned to look at the restless teen, his eyes not even opened fully, “What’s the matter?”

”I just realized that I’d never had a sleepover.”

The thought was sudden and it surprised Tommy that he even voiced it, but it was, in fact, true. The only time the boy had stayed overnight at anyone’s house was when he accidentally fell asleep while reading a really thick book on magic history at Niki’s, only to wake up when the sun was already high in the sky. He was used to saying goodbye at sunset and going home where he knew he was welcome and expected, not able to invite Tubbo over for obvious reasons and too nervous to visit the other boy’s house with his family being there. The witch always said it was because he was so amazing he worried they would feel inferior, which started joking arguments between the teens, but on the inside Tommy was afraid of not meeting the standards or somehow slipping up and hurting his friend’s relationship with his relatives.

Tubbo shrugged and yawned. “Me neither. Do you think this can be considered one? We can say it is ‘cause I’m not sure what people do on those.”

Tommy liked the idea of a sleepover, even while not quite sure what it entailed. He only heard about it from his peers in the streets and decided not to ask his brothers or father about it since he’d had much bigger problems with adjusting to his new home.

”What did you think about Samhain? Was the surprise worth it?” Tubbo asked, genuinely curious.

That question opened a gate for Tommy, the witch finally able to share all his thoughts and impressions of the exciting night. After an hour of conversation filled with laughter and freshly made memories about the event and people they'd met, the boys' voices died down, the kitchen now comfortably silent. They both were sitting up, their legs crossed and covered with the same woolen blanket.

"Kinda sucks that we can't brag about it to anyone else. I mean, not just Samhain, cause that's tip secret and what not. But magic in general, you know?"

Tommy didn't mean to say that, it just slipped out by accident and he wasn't in the habit of taking his words back most of the time. It was dark and warm and so the boy felt like sharing something more personal, even in such a light-hearted way.

Tubbo fidgeted and burrowed his fingers into the covers, his fists clenching and brows furrowed slightly. He seemed to have had something to say and bracing himself for it, and after a minute of watching his friend struggle with finding the words, Tommy asked in a straightforward manner:

"What's wrong? Did I say something bad?" The teen scratched his temple in contemplation. "I never do, but weird things happen."

He didn't mean to upset the older teen and his nerves were high, but Tubbo rushed to reassure him,

"No, I completely understand. It really does suck." He sighed deeply and continued in an almost incomprehensible whisper, too fast to hear clearly, "and that's why I decided to tell my parents and sister."

Tommy froze, looking out the window just over Tubbo's shoulder. He had a strong urge to ask the boy to repeat it louder, but he was almost completely sure he heard it right. Worry, happiness and even traces of envy all mixed together in his mind, clouding the witch's thoughts, and he shook his head violently to clear it. He finally managed to glance at his friend and say hoarsely,

"When?"

Tubbo jumped at the opportunity to fill in the awkward and tense silence.

"In a few days, probably on the weekend. If something goes... really wrong, at least mum and dad won't have to skip their workdays. I thought it'd be better to do it sooner rather than later. Lani, my sister, will come home in the evening, she's going to visit her friend, and my parents can decide if they want her to know."

His speech was jerky and Tommy could tell the teen was excited about his plan, but he wasn't sure if the nervous demeanor of the other witch was because of the announcement or because of sharing the prospect of it with his best friend, or maybe both. Tubbo's face was barely visible in the pale light so it was hard to tell for certain.

"It's okay, Tubbo," he replied finally, a smile audible in his voice. "I'm sure it'll go great. Don't forget to tell me everything."

"I will!" The teen promised, and Tommy's smile grew slightly sour.

"I wish I could also tell my family about my magic... But I'll just live it through you, I guess, so make sure everything's perfect." The boy said jokingly.

There was a pause, and his friend inquired, carefully and hesitantly, "But why can't you? It scares me shitless that my family won't accept me, but it's still better for them to know. You seem to care a lot about them." Tubbo backed off a bit, "It's completely fine not to tell! I hid it from mine for years, it's your business, I'm just, you know. Curious."

Tommy wanted to say "exactly, that's my business" and cut off this conversation entirely, but the mood he was in and the night he went through, free and emotional, made him much less resistant to the temptation of dumping everything that'd been on his mind. Before he could bite his tongue the one time it mattered, the teen blurted out,

"They're witch hunters. Both my brothers and my father."

He clapped his hands over his mouth, but it was too late to take anything back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the chapter, after a long-ass time,,,, We're definitely in the last quarter of the story now, so I hope you stick around till the end even with my suddenly garbage upload schedule :)   
> In other news: this work got 1k kudos and 20k hits, thank you so so much!! It honestly blows my mind. The support is overwhelming, and the comments on the last chapter were incredibly sweet, I saw every one and they all helped me a lot<3  
> P.S. Was wondering if someone would remember where the bird was from, happy to see some of you did :D The Birds chapter was posted nearly a month ago, I didn't even notice that much time passed, hehe.


	28. Signs

The silence seemed deafening, a string of "you fucked up" going before Tommy's eyes in big red letters. He didn't dare to glance at Tubbo's face, afraid of seeing fear or distrust on it.

"Haha, got you good, didn't I? That sounds so stupid, can't believe you fell for that. You should've seen the look on your face."  
He didn't, and he was glad for it. He felt like the pause went on for too long, his voice going too high for it to be a harmless joke, but maybe Tubbo would be relieved enough to not question things.

"That was very funny, you're just..."

The younger boy didn't get to voice what he thought his friend was as Tubbo grabbed him by the forearm and pulled, Tommy losing his balance and falling into the other witch's arms, folding almost in half to fit.

"Are you trying to choke me? Keep in mind, I'm Niki's favorite, she won't help you hide..."

"... I'm so sorry."

The whisper felt like a punch to the stomach, and Tommy sucked in the air sharply through his teeth.

"...the body," the witch finished lamely, just to say something in a poor attempt to delay the explanation. He held his breath nervously, waiting for Tubbo to continue, afraid to move. His arms were hanging numbly by the other teens' sides, the boy not quite sure what to do with his body that suddenly went limp, now that his whole weight was being supported by the person whose words could ruin his life. It may have sounded dramatic, but Tommy couldn't think in small words at the moment. Thankfully, he didn't have to ramble about nothing like he was already planning to in his panicked state, as Tubbo started talking from somewhere that seemed far away.

"I'm so sorry you have to live in a house with people like that. I suspected, but to hear that it's real..." His quiet words were frantic and heated, the underlying sense of desperation making it hard for Tommy t fully acknowledge their meaning.

"It's Philza Watson, right? You're a Watson?"

The witch could only nod sheepishly in agreement. It was strange to hear his last name from Tubbo's mouth, as no one really used it in relation to the boy. He was just the raccoon that got picked up from the streets. Watsons were the hunters, the heroes, and he was just some charity case... It was hard to concentrate and stay present, and the witch choked, a sting in his eyes telling and completely unwelcome.

"I understand. It's okay, Tommy, really. I can't imagine how shitty this must be for you."

The teen suddenly pushed Tommy away and looked into his face, searching for something. The other boy wasn't sure what he would find in there except for a pillow print on his cheek. He prayed to everything that could be listening that the tears he could feel coming up weren't visible in the pale starlight.

"Did they do something to you? Did you have to kill a witch?"

The last question was asked so carefully and cautiously Tommy felt physically sick. His best friend was asking if he'd ever ended a life of a person for nothing but the magic in their blood that made up their whole being, and even though he didn't, for that one moment he felt like the blood of every witch his family had caught and harmed was on his hands. But he just mumbled,

"No, no, I didn't. They never let me hunt, but..." He swallowed to calm his dry throat but it only made him wince in pain.

"I train. It isn't anything that different to normal physical training like guards get before being appointed, but there's also shit like fake magic encypedias or whatever they're called. I know they're complete bullshit and Niki says the same, but they're there."

"So Niki became friends with them because she knew you were a witch?" Tubbo asked, his tone more curious than intrusive, and it helped Tommy calm down slightly.  
The question still took the witch aback.

"...yes?" Tommy lied instinctively but, feeling his friend's dubious gaze on the side of his face, sighed and corrected himself.

"She was friends with them before she knew, my older brother helped her while they were both on the road." He gestured frantically before Tubbo could make any comments, "But she has nothing to do with the hunts! I'm sure she has her reasons, though they did seem weird when I asked her..."

"I suspected," Tubbo repeated, hiding his face in his hands for a moment to compose himself. "I heard a lot about the boy Philza Minecraft adopted, but I was about 13 back then so I thought I was wrong, but there's just too many coincidences. I just wanted you to tell me yourself, I guess. And here I got it. Thank you for the shocking revelation of the day, you ruined mine with the size of it. Congrats!"

He smiled, just as he always did after saying something so dumb and sudden it made Tommy laugh, but this time he didn't laugh. That smile broke something that was already fragile inside of Tommy's chest, and he fell back on the blankets and buried his face in a pillow so deep it became hard to breathe.

"Go to sleep, Tubbo. We'll talk about this tomorrow. Or we won't, if I don't want to, you'll have to see."  
Tubbo snorted and Tommy could hear the witch shuffle and get under the covers next to him.

"Goodnight, Tommy."

After a moment of complete silence, disturbed only by the sounds of Tommy’s rapidly beating heart, the witch confessed,

“They matter to me. If their work was anything else I’d be the happiest fucker alive, but… it’s not. I know it’s horrible, but they’re my family. I can’t lose them over this.”

Tubbo didn’t answer. Tommy didn't think he'd wanted him to.

# # # # #

"Hello everyone! I'm home!"

Tommy shouted as he entered the house, the door he kicked open carelessly banging against the wall and making a ruckus. His hands were busy with his washed and dried clothes that Niki passed him this morning before falling asleep almost instantly, exhausted from the Samhain night. The door to their house was almost never locked since nobody was daring enough to try and rob them, so there was no need for Tommy to wait for someone in the household to wake up and open it for him.

As the teen was making his way upstairs, tripping on a hanging sleeve of his shirt and cursing loudly, the door to Wilbur's room opened and the man himself walked out. He glanced at his younger brother and waved weakly, one of his eyes still closed. The hunter was wearing a blanket like a cape, its end slithering behind him as the man made his way to the kitchen. Tommy rushed to his room to drop off his things before coming back downstairs to join his brother for breakfast. He felt quite energetic and wasn’t that hungry after stuffing his face with delicacies for half the night, but a good meal never hurt. Wilbur was warming up his hands on a cup of tea, the flower one Niki gave him some time in the beginning of autumn that Tommy wasn’t that fond of, so he started rummaging through cabinets to find something he could eat without actually cooking anything.

As he sat down with a plate of porridge, the boy said good morning to Wilbur. The man pointed at his throat and then to his room, which confused Tommy for a second. When he understood that his brother forgot to take his writing utensils with him as he left, the witch stood up with a deep sigh which made Wilbur laugh soundlessly, and went to retrieve them. The door to the man’s room wasn’t closed and he easily spotted the notebook and an extremely short pencil on the bedside table. The teen thought about buying more pencils for the hunter at the market absent-mindedly as he walked closer to the bed to grab what he came here for, but his thoughts were cut short as the boy saw the notebook open on a completely filled out page. 

”It’s probably not a big deal if Wilbur left it out in the open like that,” Tommy reassured himself before glancing at the writings, but before he could actually read anything, the notebook in front of him was closed forcefully and snatched up by its owner himself.

The witch jumped up in surprise and glared at his brother.

”Why did you make me stand up if you were going to come here anyway? This isn’t funny.”

Wilbur didn’t seem to think of it as funny as well: there was a strange look on his face, not quite guilty, but tense and guarded. It only lasted a moment, and Tommy decided it was just a trick of his imagination as the man opened the notebook again on the last page and simply wrote down, ‘It builds character’.

”What builds character? Going to the room just to get your crap only for you to get it yourself? Having a shithead of a brother?”

Wilbur smirked and didn’t say anything else, instead dropping the blanket down on his bed and putting on a shirt he took off of a chair. 

”Fine, ignore me. I’ll just pour out your weird tea and we’ll be even.”

And the boy sprinted to the kitchen, laughing as the hunter bolted after him with his shirt buttoned only halfway through. He wasn’t actually going to do anything to the drink, but he didn’t have the opportunity to even try as Wilbur grabbed the mug and held it high above his head, some of the tea spilling on the floor. Tommy reached his hands up to get to the mug, cursing the man out as they circled around the kitchen trying to avoid the furniture, and Will smiled teasingly as he watched his brother’s poor attempts. Tommy was so immersed in their mock fight that he didn’t notice the hunter stop in his tracks before bumping directly into his chest. The mug fell on the floor and shattered, the warm tea spilling and getting on the teen’s clothes and skin, him hissing and shaking off the droplets.

”What the hell happened? Wilbur?”

There was a pensive expression on the man’s face. He took hold of Tommy’s arm and tapped lightly on the spot on the boy’s palm, and it took the witch a moment to figure out what the problem was until he took a look at his hand to see a dark star that was glaringly obvious against his skin. Tommy swallowed nervously: he completely forgot it was a thing in all the hassle of the night, and now Wilbur was watching him curiously and this was not good.

“Oh, this?” the teen laughed awkwardly and jerked his hand out of his brother’s grasp to rub at the black spot defensively. “I got really bored and drew it, history, you know?”

Wilbur raised his eyebrows and Tommy worried he wasn’t quite satisfied with that explanation, but thankfully the man didn’t have time to “interrogate” him further as the brothers heard a voice from the staircase.

“Tommy, why are you so loud that early in the morning. I hoped you’d stay at Niki’s for longer.”

Phil yawned and stretched and the steps creaked as he slowly walked downstairs, holding an empty mug in his hand. Tommy saw a lucky opportunity in the man’s words and started a rage-fueled rant, hoping desperately for it to distract his brother from the mark. In the end, it seemed to work, and Wilbur shook his head with a chuckle at the boy’s antics before picking up the thankfully intact mug from the floor and grabbing a towel to clean up the mess. Phil was used to his youngest son’s volume so he just pinched the bridge of his nose and poured himself a cup of water. When Tommy saw everyone minding their own business and not paying him any attention, he grabbed a spoon and took a bite just to leave more than half of the plate full.

“If anyone’s gonna eat this, the offer’s on the table.”

Phil put the cup down on the counter and asked, “What about you?”

”I ate breakfast at Niki’s,” the teen lied shamelessly and walked past Wilbur as carefully as possible to get to the front door. The man raised his hand to ask Tommy to wait with a gesture, which was the last thing the witch wanted, so he guiltily turned his head away and pretended he didn’t see. It made him feel like shit, but the boy really didn’t have a proper explanation for why the ink on his hand can’t be washed or scrubbed away. Hopefully, when Tommy returned home in the evening, Wilbur would forget everything about that conversation and the teen wouldn’t have to lie even more than he already did by omission. Not saying anything was hard enough, but outright deceiving an experienced hunter wasn’t something he was confident he could do.

”I’ll have a walk, maybe go to the market, don’t know yet. Don’t wait up!” 

Tommy walked out of the house and shut the door behind himself only to lean on it, completely exhausted from just this one interaction. His nighttime conversation with Tubbo came to mind and he tried his hardest to not get too upset about it. Well, even more upset than he’d already been. It didn’t matter if he had to cover up every loose end. He managed to do it for months and will continue if it meant everyone would be safe. Including himself. He was happy for Tubbo, but that was it. There was no reason to think about the issue beyond supporting his best friend.

After a short pep talk and doing some breathing exercises Niki insisted would help, Tommy moved away from the door and put his freezing hands in his pockets. It really was getting cold, and winter was too far off. He started walking at a slightly faster than average speed down the road in an attempt to keep some of the warmth. If Tubbo wasn’t on their clearing when the witch showed up and freezing his ass off, he was going to trip him with roots so hard the teen would see stars. 

# # # # #

Tommy underestimated his energy reserves, and his shaky limbs were the prime indicator of it. After the end of the last mock duel his hands were trembling so hard Tubbo thought something was wrong and got genuinely worried and offered to walk his friend to make sure he was feeling alright. Tommy got scared for a moment before remembering that the other boy now knew who his family was and so there was no need for him to hide his address anymore. Still, it was too much for him to reveal in just 24 hours. Some things were better left to oneself, and his home was one of those things. So he bullied Tubbo into walking him out of the forest just to leave right after, which the older boy did, although reluctantly. Tommy sighed as he watched his best friend walk away and wondered if he should’ve trusted him more, but in the end decided it wasn’t the problem. It felt like his magic wasn’t just his secret to keep, and having Tubbo be seen by accident by one of his family members would painfully complicate everything.

When he came home he found it empty and dark, no candles lit in any of the rooms. It wasn’t that late into the night, so the teen wondered if everyone left for an evening walk. His suspicions were proven right: the warm clothes that were usually piled on a chair close to the door was almost completely empty and the doors to Techno’s and Wilbur’s room were wide open, revealing empty dark spaces inside. Tommy thought it was better this way, as he wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone at the moment. The witch entered his room, his legs weak after the whole day of walking and training, but before he could jump down onto his bed fully dressed and go straight to sleep, he noticed that his window was opened. Phil sometimes opened it to air out the room, but that wasn’t the only thing out of place. The thing that caught Tommy’s attention right after the window was a white envelope on the windowsill and the boy took it in his hands. A thought about there being something wrong with the paper crossed his mind briefly, but he quickly brushed them off because of the overwhelming curiosity. There was no writing on the envelope itself, but its surface wasn’t completely empty: it had a dirty mark of a bird’s step where the seal could have been. Tommy tore the envelope open, and from it fell an awfully familiar piece of wood bark and a small note. After picking up and pocketing the bark, the witch read the short text on the note.  
It read,

’Dear friend,

Got the confirmation letter. Meeting at the burning field, tomorrow, 10 am. I will be waiting.

Signed,

:)'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Nothing much to say, so I'll just say that I miss Techno's streams. That's it. Hope you enjoy the story, have a lovely day<3


	29. First Lesson

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hallo! Sorry for the lack of updates, this past two weeks had been kinda wild,,, Have this bigger chapter to make up for it.
> 
> Also, I got so many scared comments because of the letter when I just didn't clarify something right away.... That was interesting to watch, but I hope the beginning of this one will clear everything up. Hope you enjoy!

Tommy once again turned the letter in his hands, looking it over in search of any details he could've missed. There was almost no doubt in his mind regarding the sender of the letter: the "burning field" and the drawing of a smiling face at the bottom were more than enough to determine the identity of the author. The footprint most likely belonged to the mail bird - a lot of witches used the services of a particular bird in exchange for food and shelter during cold seasons. Niki used one as well - a magpie that evidently hated Tommy with passion after he hadn't let it steal his sandwich.

He didn't expect the response to be that fast: he'd told Niki about Dream's offer just this morning. The witch seemed happy for him and promised to write the letter to the High Priest immediately, which she did, even while exhausted from the sleepless night. Eventually, Tommy figured that maybe Dream’s bird was faster due to his experience and instead felt the nerves and excitement rise in his gut. He was always happy to learn things about magic, especially if they were more practical than the witch history lessons Niki gave him. The teen put the pass back with the letter and hid the envelope with his other magic-related belongings before changing his clothes and going to sleep. Usually he never worried about being late, but this was different – the anticipation so strong the witch couldn’t wait for the next day to come. Tommy closed his eyes, wondering about the tricks and spells one of the most powerful witches could teach him.

The tree was gorgeous. It looked to be decades old, its leaves bright, almost unnatural emerald green and the bark the nicest, warmest shade of brown. It had no fruits or flowers on its branches, but there was still something about it that smelt wonderful; something to be consumed, to be claimed for oneself, something so magnetic that it attracted with its energy alone. No wind was playing in its crown and the birds weren’t singing anywhere near: all the sounds were drowned out by the aura of power the beautiful tree emitted. But that was fine, as long as he could just touch it, it all would be worth it, all the bones and blood and loss. The cracks of the tree bark started bleeding, the liquid dark red and slowly covering the whole trunk. Just one touch…

Tommy opened his eyes, his breathing heavy and uneven. The fragments of the teen’s dream danced in his mind as he tried to catch them to understand the nature of the nightmare, but couldn’t quite grasp the details. It was probably the result of nerves as he had anxiety-induced bad dreams before, like when he forgot about an important exam or when he was scared his family would find out about his magic. Different causes, same response – sometimes bodies were really stupid. With such thoughts and reasoning Tommy threw the memories of the nightmare out of his head completely and got out of bed: the sun was up, but not that high in the sky as to assume the boy was late to his first lesson, which gave him plenty of time to collect himself, get dressed and eat some breakfast.

The house, which was usually quiet in the mornings, was filled with the noise of something heavy being dragged across the floor downstairs, as well as Phil’s and Techno’s voices, loud enough to be heard but not enough for the meaning to be discerned. Tommy’s curiosity got the best of him, and the teen hurriedly walked down the stairs to see what all the fuss was about. All the confusion was cleared out as soon as he saw the kitchen: both his brothers were standing near a glaring hole in the floor holding heavy-looking canvas bags. Phil was nowhere to be seen, until his voice sounded from below the floor level and his head appeared from under the floorboards.

”How many of those do we have left?” the man asked, gesturing at the bag in Wil’s hands with his chin.

”These two, plus three more. Plus about ten jars.” Techno replied, fighting a yawn in the middle of his answer.

Phil nodded and took the bag from the man’s hands, disappearing in the dark cellar again. Wilbur dropped his load down and stretched his hands above his head. 

With everything that’d been happening Tommy completely forgot about the stocks: every year at the beginning of November the family went to the marketplace together to buy enough vegetables to last them the winter: onions, potatoes, carrots, all the things that would last for a couple of months. The boy entered the kitchen with a nonchalant wave.

”Good morning, you’re all very loud.”

Techno looked at him pointedly. “Look who’s talking.”

”I have never been loud in my life,” Tommy replied and glanced into the hole to see the only thing visible in the dark – the wooden ladder. At that moment he heard a dull thud and a string of curses from the deep of the cellar.

“Phil? Is everything okay?” Techno asked, concerned.

”Shit… yeah, it’s fine, just hit my head on a beam. Should’ve gotten used to the space, but nope.”

The man laughed and Techno relaxed, shaking his head in exasperation. Tommy asked his brother the time, and after hearing it was almost 9:30, offered to help to store the food before he’d have to run. 

He got trusted with the jars, as Techno said, “solely because we’re done with everything less breakable”, which Tommy personally found completely unwarranted. Yes, he did smash one just last year, but that was long ago and actually not true at all. This time, thankfully, the witch managed to move everything without incident and pass the jars safely into Phil’s hands. After that the teen sat down to hastily eat some breakfast before saying goodbye and leaving the house.

He didn’t go far: the only place the boy could think of to use the pass was Niki’s house, and he knocked on his friend’s door, hoping she wasn’t still asleep. Turned out, she was – the woman opened the door while still wearing her nightclothes with a blanket thrown over her shoulders. Niki looked surprised to see the boy – as surprised as the person who barely managed to keep their eyes open could look. 

”Tommy? Did you forget something?” she asked, holding back a yawn.

”Good morning, Niki, I’m doing great, thanks for asking! I actually wondered if I could use your door for a pass?” 

It obviously took Niki a moment to register the teen’s words. “The pass..? Tommy, if you left something in the field, you probably won’t get it back for a while. Passes only work twice. I could write a letter, but if it wasn’t anything important, they probably won’t bother with sending you another one.”

Tommy smiled smugly. “I actually already got another pass. Dream sent it to me yesterday to meet him for our lesson, and it starts in about 5 minutes, so…”

Niki seemed confused because of the explanation, and after letting the boy in she wondered,

”Really? He’s already contacted you? That seems… a bit too fast, to be honest.”

Tommy huffed as he came close to Niki’s bedroom door and closed it to activate the pass.

”I mean, he is pretty fucking powerful from what I’ve heard. Maybe he feeds his message birds magical seeds to make them fly faster, who knows.”

The other witch shook her head and yawned again, tugging the blanket closer to her. “I guess you’re right. Okay, I still need sleep, so you should probably go in. Good luck with your lesson, I’m very proud of you.”

The boy nodded and pressed the activated pass to the door, opening it and stepping inside confidently. After all, there was nothing to worry about – Dream was just some guy in a weird mask. Really, how bad can it be?

# # # # #

The place Tommy appeared in after stepping out of the portal wasn’t familiar in the slightest. Instead of the entrance hall with the stairs and giant double doors, the teen found himself in a long hallway that looked slightly similar to the one with the changing rooms he’d seen the night before. But, contrary to that hall, a long black carpet was covering the floor and various paintings were covering the walls. 

The witch looked around: the door he came out of was taller than others he could see and was probably leading to another hallway or a different part of the building entirely. Maybe it was the less extravagant way outside – Tommy tried to find out the answer by opening the door, but it turned out to be locked. The boy had no other choice but to move forward, glancing at every door with curiosity while feeling pissed off at Dream for not sending him to the actual place of the meeting. 

The hall was way too quiet for Tommy’s liking, and there were no windows to be seen, the only light provided by lanterns hanging along the walls. All the doors were pretty much the same, so the boy thought the only logical conclusion was to try and open every one of them in hopes of stumbling onto his “teacher” by accident. Some of them were locked just like the first one he’d checked, some actually opened, revealing mostly identical bedrooms and bathing rooms. The rooms didn’t look used, but everything still seemed fresh and just readied, which made the teen wonder if the owner was waiting for some guests to arrive soon. Tommy was getting impatient: not only were the rooms boring to look at, there was also still no sign of the Head Witch. 

Eventually, something changed in the row of similar closed doors – the boy saw a similar door that was slightly ajar. 

”Fucking finally,” Tommy muttered and opened the door wider to see who or what was inside. 

The room was enormous and actually well-lit, almost as well as the ballroom the Samhain event took place in. And the reason for it became obvious instantly: it contained dozens, if not hundreds of shelves filled from top to bottom with books and scripts. It was pretty clean for such a spacious library: even the small one they had at home got dust all over it in a matter of weeks; Tommy wondered if Dream hired someone to clean it or if there was some kind of magic for that that he wasn’t aware of. He hoped it was the latter just so he could learn and use it – he got stuck with a cleaning duty constantly.

The teen entered the room in hopes of finding his “teacher” there. He walked along the shelves, looking through every passage and glancing at the book titles in the process. He knew Techno would murder people to be let in here – not figuratively, the witch was sure he would actually do if someone offered; his brother really needed to reevaluate his priorities. There were volumes on almost every subject Tommy could think of – geography, history, mathematics, books in languages the boy hadn’t even heard of, books on magic from witch researchers and magic users alike. Tommy spotted a book about demons – something he’d never really dwelled on with Niki and that he’d been curious about, even more so after his last conversation with Skeppy and the powers he’d seen displayed during Samhain. He decided it wouldn’t hurt anyone if he just took a quick look at the table of contents, and so the teen grabbed the book by its spine and pulled. The book didn’t budge.

Tommy frowned in confusion and pulled again, now feeling that something or someone was holding the volume back.

”Oi, what the hell?” he said aloud, and suddenly the force pulling from the other side was gone, startling the witch and making him let go of the book just as it was out of its place.

The book fell to the ground, but Tommy was more concerned with the newfound reason for his troubles: at the other end of the shelf was standing a wide-eyed man in a tight-fitting hat and casual clothes.

”Oh, didn’t notice you there. Just so you know, I wasn’t going to steal that book. If you were wondering.”

Tommy didn’t think it was necessary to mention that since it did sound awfully suspicious, but there was no way to take those words back. The stranger didn’t seem too concerned over his clarification: he was still frozen in place and looking like he’d seen a ghost. The teen had a strong urge to wave a hand in front of his face just to see if he would react, but the man seemed to get ahold of himself and gave the boy a tight smile.

”Nah, it’s fine, don’t worry. You’re Tommy, right? Here for the lesson with Dream? If he told you it’s okay to touch that stuff, then I don’t care. I’m not the boss around here.”

Tommy cleared his throat and scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, he totally did… give me permission… Anyway,” the witch tried to change the subject, “who are you? Do you work here?”

The stranger shrugged. “You could say so. I’m his right hand, advisor, you name it – I helped organize Samhain and send the passes. I'm also his first student, he must've told you I exist. You can call me Quackity.”

Tommy nodded in agreement and looked back at the door, then back at Quackity. “Listen, mate, do you know where Dream is? I’m pretty lost and I don’t know how to get outside. You have a shit ton of doors, that’s really unnecessary if you ask me.”

The man laughed. “Yeah, it’s like a maze around here, I got lost all the time when I started living here. C’mon, I’ll show you the exit. The field is right outside. I thought Dream was gonna meet you, though.”

The pair left the library and moved back in the direction Tommy’d started from. The teen wanted to point out that the door at the end is closed, but he didn’t have time as he saw a cloaked figure coming towards them.

“Oh, hey Dream! I found your lost student, where’d you send him?” Quackity asked, raising his hand in greeting.

The Head Witch got closer and paused in front of the pair, making them stop in their tracks. Dream nodded in reply to the man’s words and turned his head towards the boy.

”Hello, Tommy. I was actually looking for you. Your pass should’ve sent you right to the exit door, were there any problems?”

”I don’t know which one the exit door is, but the one I went through closed right after I got out. It was locked.” Tommy answered, unimpressed.

”Yeah, it… should do that. I expected you to wait there for me.” Dream explained …

”That was a weird thing to expect. Could’ve at least warn me, that wasn’t very cool of you.” 

Tommy felt Quackity’s stare on him and noticed a portion of fear and confusion in his eyes, but the boy really couldn’t understand the problem. He knew this was for him more than it was for Dream, but warning about things like that was just common decency, you can’t blame the teen for wandering. Plus, he was curious about the structure of the building, but he wasn’t going to mention that.

After a tense pause, Dream chuckled and gestured with his hand towards the direction of the door at the end of the hallway.

”Well, now that it’s all cleared up, we can go and start with the lesson.” He turned back to his - assistant? Worker? – and added, “Thanks for walking Tommy here. You can go back to your tasks.”

”Yessir,” Quackity saluted jokingly and began his walk back, his hands hidden in his trousers’ pockets and a spring in his step.

Dream and Tommy continued on their way to the exit in silence. Tommy had so many questions he didn’t know which one to start with, so he kept them all to himself for now until he could figure out the most important ones. The walk was quick, the length of the hallway seeming far shorter now that Tommy didn’t have to look into every room on his way. Soon, they were at the door which turned out to be unlocked – the older witch probably came into the hall from outside, opening it. The teen really could’ve just waited for a bit, huh?

The witches walked outside: the sun was bright and the wind wasn’t biting cold. It was was comfortably chilly, and the boy breathed in the fresh air, relishing in the breathing of the forest all around the clearing. He could hear the faint chirping of the birds that stayed in the country all year long, and it grounded him more than anything at that moment could. 

As they walked slightly farther away from the building which in Tommy’s mind was now a full-blown castle, the teen noticed a strange commotion in the distance – cloaked figures were standing in a small circle around a piece of furniture that resembled a picnic table. For a moment the witch thought these could be other students, but then he remembered Dream’s words about him not planning on having many students, so he was lost about the identity of the strange people.  
But as they got closer to the table, Tommy noticed that it was even weirder than just people – the figures turned out to be wooden mannequins, standing silently and steadily while the wind ruffled their clothes. The boy wanted to ask his teacher about it, but the man started talking first.

”We will need these for the lesson. They’re just mannequins we use for practice – you can ask Quackity about it later, he can confirm.”

Tommy wasn’t necessarily worried, but Dream’s words cleared up any doubts the boy did have about the objects. They still looked too creepy for his liking, but as long as they were just overgrown wooden dolls, he didn’t really care. 

Dream sat down at the table, gesturing for Tommy to do the same. The High Priest raised his hand up and moved his gloved fingers as if touching an invisible string. The wind instantly vanished, the moving of the mannequins’ costumes stopping almost immediately. The teen noticed the grass in a couple of meters from him shift violently, as if pressed down to the ground by some kind of force, and figured that the wind was moved in that direction. Niki taught him to do something similar, but on a lesser scale: it took a lot of effort and swearing for him to redirect wind, and seeing Dream do it so effortlessly did leave an impression on the teen.

Dream put a hand into the folds of his cloak and took out a stack of paper tied with a thin string. He put it on the table and spoke.

”So. I don’t want to spend time on basics – it’s better to start with something simple, but useful, something you haven’t seen or tried yet; don’t you agree?”

Tommy nodded, even though he suspected the other witch didn’t need his approval on that one. 

”I’ll try and see what you already know as we go along; I trust Eret’s judgment, and things I’m planning on teaching you don’t require any special skills. Just dedication, mostly.” Dream explained as he untied the paper and took a brush and a closed ink bottle out of his sleeve to Tommy’s bewilderment. Did he store all of the writing supplies in his clothes?

The man continued, “How much do you know about curse keys?”

”I know that they exist.” The boy shrugged. “I know the types of them and Niki had me memorize some of the most popular ones, but she doesn’t let me use them myself.”

”Just as I thought. Now that I’m here to supervise you, you can start practicing making some keys yourself. I hope you understand that keys can be not only harmful, but helpful as well. I created this one myself. Give me your hand.”

Dream took Tommy’s hand in his, opened the ink, put some on the brush and started writing something on the boy’s palm. It wasn’t unpleasant or even unfamiliar: the witch often wrote things down on his skin during usual, non-magic lessons with Niki when he couldn’t be bothered to reach for the paper.

The key seemed to be simple as the man was finished in under a minute and let go of the teen’s arm. Tommy turned his palm towards his face to look at the drawing – it looked like a normal three-layer key, but something about it was different. After a short inspection the boy figured out the difference: the fixation layer was as loose as possible for the key to still work. It meant it would disappear immediately after activation, which usually wouldn’t be ideal for most of the curses. He also didn’t recognize the inner layer, the one responsible for the effect of the curse, but that wasn’t surprising – he still had a lot to learn about the writings, and even though he tried to study, it was incredibly hard not to fall asleep because of the sheer amount of almost identical symbols with different meanings.

”This key allows you to find other keys on people or things. It’s pretty useful to check for curses before there’s a chance for them to get activated, or to find activated ones when there’s not a lot of time for searching. You can also activate it yourself, even though I was the one to draw it, since the effect is instant and depends on your own magic.” Dream stood up and put his hands against his sides. “There’s a key somewhere on me; try to find it using the key.”

Tommy concentrated the energy in his palm, the other witch had written on, and felt it grow almost painfully hot. The boy gritted his teeth and directed his hand at Dream’s chest, continuing to channel his energy and waiting for something to happen. Eventually, it did – the place in front of the man’s left hip, somewhat close to his knee, glowed brightly with a silhouette of a simple burning curse. It didn’t last long and left burns in the area close to the key, the radius depending on the size of the mark and on the strength the magic user put into activating it. 

The silhouette floated in the air for about 10 seconds before dissolving. That wasn’t Tommy’s main concern though – the key on his palm disappeared with a burning sensation, almost like his skin was being slashed open, and ashes fell down and disappeared before hitting the ground, leaving no trace of the ink that’d been there before. The pain lessened pretty fast, but not before the teen had time to curse out everything that led him to this moment. Dream was just standing there, watching, his mask cold and smiling as usual. 

”Well done! See, it’s pretty easy.”

Tommy winced and rubbed his now clean palm. “Pretty fucking easy my ass, I feel like my hand is on fire!”

Dream replied patiently, “It doesn’t have any lasting effects and the pain should be gone by now, so I think it’s a fair deal.”

That was true, but it didn’t mean the boy had to agree. 

”Here.” Dream put a paper in front of the boy with the key already drawn on it. “Fill out this paper with it for practice, I’ll tell you when it’s enough. You need to memorize it.”

Tommy groaned but complied: this did seem pretty useful, so he took the brush and got to work. The boy wasn’t sure how long he spent on writing down every character and sign of the key – it was harder to draw than it looked from the outside, and he constantly made mistakes that would ruin the effect. Even after Dream finally told him to stop, his suffering was far from over: the man pointed at the mannequins and offered to try and use the key to find the keys put on each one of them.

Tommy remembered the pain of the first time he activated the searching key, as he’d dubbed it, and felt an extreme urge to weep.

# # # # #

Tommy came back to Niki’s through the portal and nearly collapsed, but at the last moment yelled goodbye to his friend and went home. He couldn’t feel his hands after all the writing, and his palms felt like they’d been burned to a crisp. Thankfully, Dream let him take a break and talked about the meaning of the symbols making up the last layer of the key: it was hard to call a break, but the teen at least managed to shake off the tension in his arms and shoulders, and it was actually some interesting information.

His whole demeanor screamed exhaustion, and Wilbur, who wanted to say something to the boy when he came into the kitchen, just shook his head and let his brother be. Tommy grabbed some bread and an apple – the only things he had the energy to actually eat – and got to his room just to fall down onto the bed and curse his decision to agree to Dream’s offer.

The other witch offered to meet again in three days. Tommy, of course, answered “sure”. Like one does.

Tommy was chewing the last bite of the bread, when suddenly he stopped with his mouth still full. The searching key showed the outline of the curse key. No one from the boy’s family ever told him about Wilbur’s key and he’d never asked after that one conversation months ago, just after he and Phil returned from the hunt.   
Niki needed to know which curse was put on Wil so she could start working on the cure, if there was one.

Tommy swallowed with difficulty, hope blossoming in his chest. If he managed to pull this off, he could finally get closer to fixing his brother’s problem.

He could give Wilbur his voice back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably a mess, editing is my mortal enemy and I would fight it if given the opportunity. 
> 
> Thank you for reading and leaving comments and kudos, they motivate me a great deal :D I'll try to get back into answering comments now that I'm feeling a bit better.


	30. Curse Keys

A simple plan immediately formed in Tommy's mind. He couldn't let himself be seen using magic, for obvious reasons, so he decided to act at night, after the hunters have gone to sleep. The sun was still high up in the sky, so all the teen could do while waiting for the night to fall was to draw the searching key over and over in a textbook to keep the memory of it fresh and struggling to sit still because of anticipation and nervousness.

Only after the sky finally changed colors from gentle pinks and oranges to dark and deep blues, Tommy remembered that he was supposed to meet Tubbo in their usual spot. The normal time of the meeting passed hours ago though, and so the witch sighed, irritated, and hoped that the other boy hadn't waited long for him before leaving. He would probably complain about it the next time they got to spend time together. 'He really can't go one day without me', Tommy thought with a quiet laugh as he closed the textbook he'd been drawing in for the past couple of hours, not counting the breaks he took to eat and finish his actual homework Niki still insisted on assigning to him. 

The boy plopped down onto his bed and stared at the ceiling, his mind once again wandering to the subject of Wilbur's curse. The key must be rare or at the very least complicated in its design - Tommy knew they hadn't yet figured out the nature of the curse, since he still saw them come home with more and more books regarding all kinds of magic. They usually took the books straight to their rooms to study the pages by themselves, but the witch had managed to glance over some of the volumes once, when Techno and Phil got distracted by a traveler asking for directions. Most of them were complete nonsense - spells that bent all the laws of magic even witch hunters, let alone witches themselves were aware of, recipes for potions that would give you a stomach ache at best and kill you in painful ways at worst, all the most horrible stereotypes rolled together to entertain and scare misbehaving children rather than provide useful information. Those were the sources Tommy's brother and father had never resorted to before: they were desperate, and it showed.

The witch got tired of sitting around aimlessly: he sat down near the table and drew the key on his palm with the ink. His hands were trembling slightly as he went through the motions automatically, the symbols far from precise, but Tommy couldn’t care less about their looks as long as the mark did the job. He put the small inkpot and the brush inside his pocket just in case and stood up, anticipation growing ever so stronger inside his chest. It was time.

The boy opened the door and popped his head out in the hall, listening intensely: no sound could be heard from downstairs, and the lantern in the kitchen had been evidently blown out, as the staircase was so dark Tommy could hardly see the steps from where he was standing. He wasn't sure if everyone was asleep or just went to their rooms: he knew Techno often read before bed and Wilbur went over his music sheets (although the teen didn't know if Wil did it now; he hadn't heard the man play guitar for months). 

The steps creaked under Tommy's feet, and he winced with every sound - the walls were thick enough that some creaking wouldn't be heard from other rooms, but the noise still grated on the teen's nerves. He glanced at the doors to his brothers' bedrooms - no light was coming from under them, which didn't necessarily mean that the men were asleep, but gave the impression that Tommy wouldn't have to wait for long until they were. 

The witch turned the handle - the door opened silently, and he looked inside to see the shape of Wilbur's bed in the corner of the dark room. The bundle on the bed turned over, making Tommy jerk instinctively before whispering,

"Wil? Are you sleeping..?"

Wilbur didn't react to the question, remaining in the same position. Tommy stood in the hall for another minute, waiting for his brother to move or stir, but nothing happened. The boy entered cautiously, nearly tripping over the porch in the process, and got closer to the bed. He resisted the urge to wipe his palms over the trousers, afraid of smudging the key already drawn on his skin. Tommy took a look at the sleeping man: he was lying on his back, only his head and neck sticking from under the blanket, which was probably due to the cold temperatures even inside the house, the chill wind blowing through the tiniest cracks in the walls and window frames. The witch didn’t think the covers would be a problem, so he took a shaky breath and extended his hand over Wilbur. He felt the magic flow through his body and concentrate in the center of his palm, the familiar sensation of his nerves slowly catching on fire easier to tune out after hours of practice, but noticeable nevertheless. The teen didn’t let himself move his gaze away from the figure of his brother, ready to see and memorise the curse key as soon as its projection appeared in the air. The burning reached its peak and Tommy clenched his jaw to keep himself from cursing aloud, but after a moment his mouth fell open regardless of his effort. Instead of the usual projection he saw near Dream and the training mannequins, a dark mark appeared on the skin of Wilbur’s throat, right below his Adam’s apple. The man shivered and his breathing became irregular, and the witch’s eyes widened in alarm. Did he really draw the key wrong, the one time he actually needed to use it for actual search..? But the boy had no choice – he shifted his attention back to Wil’s markings and couldn’t help but be relieved that at least something was going his way: he’d seen this key before in Niki’s books when searching for the possible reasons for his brother’s misfortune. It wasn’t overly simple, - it was a written key, and the symbols were so complex that Tommy once again wondered how the witch his family’d been hunting had managed to draw them in such a picture-perfect way, - but at least he knew where to point his teacher when telling her about his findings. Wilbur swallowed visibly and his face distorted, as if the man was in pain, and the boy was too worried about the movement to notice the burning of his own skin grow worse, signifying the end of its effect.

He barely had the time to pull his hand back and press it against his chest before the ash of the burned key fell down on the floor. 

”Shit,” the teen couldn’t help but whisper in alarm, looking at his feet as if he could actually see anything in the dark of the room. 

He managed to spot some piece of clothing hanging on the bed frame at his brother’s feet, probably a shirt of some kind, and he grabbed it to brush the ashes under the bed for the lack of a better choice and out of sheer panic that overwhelmed the boy for a moment. When he was finished, he carelessly threw the impromptu washcloth back in its place and glanced at Wil’s face nervously. Everything seemed to be fine though – the man’s expression was once again peaceful, no marks were visible on the skin of his throat like Tommy feared they would be, and the witch wiped the trail of sweat running down his forehead.

The witch didn't waste time and hastily left the bedroom, having made sure Wilbur wasn't in any pain or going to wake up any time soon. The boy leaned against the wall and laughed a bit too loud when the thought of what he'd just seen finally settled and registered - after months of nothing but speculations, he had something real and useful! It was exhilarating, and a devilish kind of hope bloomed inside his chest. He imagined presenting his brother with a cure, sharing his knowledge and receiving recognition for all the work he'd been doing for the past months. He could show that magic wasn't inherently evil, just as he wasn't deserving of unfounded hatred from commoners and hunters he'd never seen or done anything to. Those fantasies were poisonous and unrealistic - the notion of coming clean was appealing, but there was no way he'd put other magic users in danger if he was interrogated as a result of his confessions. 

"My brain is such an arsehole sometimes," Tommy muttered angrily, "what I did was fucking awesome, shut up and let me be happy about it."

The teen moved back to the kitchen and was walking past the door to Techno's room, when a sudden idea smacked him across the face. 

He had not one, but two cursed brothers.

Techno had been the way he was way longer than Tommy'd been part of the family. The witch became used to the man's appearance and beastly features, and saw his inhuman strength and reflexes as not only something inherent, but also useful in hunts and everyday life. But mostly it was something mundane - Phil asking the man to carry equipment, him opening jars after Tommy started to curse out the lid with long-suffering sighs, things the boy regarded as traits of a cooler older brother and not the result of a malicious curse.

So Tommy hesitated in front of the entrance - was it really that horrible? Techno assured his family's that nothing hurt that wasn't supposed to, and the teen couldn't really imagine the man without his tusks anymore.

Before he quite knew what he was doing, Tommy was taking out ink and drawing the key the same way he did the last one, the gloominess of the hall just a slight annoyance after hours of repetitive writing.

"It's not like I'm going to reverse it or should even try to," the witch mumbled to himself, his hand hovering over the door handle. "It won't kill anyone to check, unless I get caught and Techno stabs me in the stomach before even waking up properly, the paranoid bastard." 

But he knew it was too late: now that the idea entered his head it wasn't getting out, and it would be better to get it over with now and not wait another whole day, drowning in doubts and curiosity alike. The boy turned the handle and stepped inside. 

Men's rooms were almost identical in terms of furniture, so Tommy's steps were less hesitant as he navigated the space and stood near his sleeping brother. He repeated the actions almost numbly: there was still urgency of performing magic in a front of a hunter, but the result was more of an interest than a pressing necessity, so it was easier to concentrate on activation. Tommy waited out the pain, felt it grow stronger until... Nothing happened. Either the witch messed up the key completely, or... There was no curse key on Techno's body.

”What on earth..?" Tommy muttered, and realized immediately that those words were a mistake.

One of his hands was gripped tightly, to the point of it being painful, by a much stronger one. Thankfully, it wasn't the hand that still burned with the activated key, so the witch made sure to put the other one in his pocket before Techno could somehow see the drawing.

The man was barely awake, but his hold on Tommy was unforgiving - Techno reacted before looking, and the teen noticed with growing unease that his brother had reached for a dagger he kept under the pillow. 

"Techno, wait, it's me," the boy whispered, his eyes wide in fear.

The man was usually capable of controlling his strength, but the situation must be different when someone was standing over his bed in the dead of night with unknown intentions. At Tommy's words Techno's grip loosened slightly, and his eyes opened wider and focused on the teen's face. 

He frowned and asked sleepily, "Tommy? What the heck are you doing here?"

The boy's mind raced in search of an excuse, and he had to fight back a yelp of triumph when he finally came up with one. Instead of showing his relief, he made the saddest, most pitiful face he could and answered shakily,

"I... Sorry, I had a nightmare. I didn't... " he sniffed to be more convincing and instantly wondered if that was too much, judging by Techno's confused expression. "I can go, sorry again. Just wanted to check if anyone was awake."

The hunter looked surprised at Tommy's words, but the witch's act seemed to work - something akin to understanding flashed over the man's face. But he still didn't let go of the boy, and when the teen smiled awkwardly and turned towards the door to leave, Techno tightened his grip, making Tommy stop in his tracks. He was afraid of looking back, thinking back about their whole interaction to see where he could've slipped up. Lies were piling up, and it would really take a miracle for the man not to notice anything amiss. 

The boy swallowed with difficulty and turned his head to glance at his brother. 

"Stay here." Techno asked in a bored tone, not looking at Tommy and rearranging the covers to keep his hands busy. "I have to see that you're actually sleeping, or you'll be half-dead tomorrow. We still need you to wash the floors, you know."

Tommy huffed, annoyed at the reminder about his chores, but inside he was thanking the skies for his brother's inability to see through lies. He contemplated the offer for a moment and nodded, returning to the bed and sitting down on the spot Techno freed for him. The man himself turned on his side and was facing the wall.

"You're still such a child," he laughed quietly, not moving.

"And you're still such a jerk," Tommy replied, bumping his fist lightly against Techno's back before lying down and hogging the covers out of pure spite.

The hunter tugged on the fabric half-heartedly, but eventually let go, and soon the boy was fast asleep, the tension of the evening finally leaving his body.

The silence was eerie, almost sharp in its intensity. Something should’ve made a sound by now: a blow of the wind, the leaves, the blood dripping down the branches and hitting the ground. The Earth wasn’t breathing, which was wrong, so wrong, but the sweet aroma from the tree was too distracting to concentrate on anything else. The red fluid pulled at its roots and coated the bare ground and painted the sickly yellow grass. But it was okay, just a price to pay for… What?

# # # # #

This time the door Tommy exited from was unlocked and he didn’t have to wander the halls uselessly, instead heading straight outside in hopes of starting with the lesson right away. He wanted to get back home as fast as possible: Niki asked him and Tubbo to gather some roots for the potion she’d been making for Wilbur for the past two days, which Tommy still couldn’t quite believe. There was steady progress: the potion would need to be infused for more or less three days after it was done brewing, so the boy wanted to speed up the only portion of the process he had any say in. Thankfully, Tubbo had agreed to help without much convincing once his friends explained the situation and had most of the dried herbs on hand, but there were still fresh ingredients required for the brew, and unlike his brothers thought, Tommy did have his priorities straight. Occasionally. 

Luck seemed to be on his side: Dream was sitting at the familiar table, shuffling pieces of paper in his hands like a pack of cards, his head tilted to the side and bopping up and down to some melody that couldn’t be heard by anyone but the man himself. When the witch noticed the teen approach, he nodded in acknowledgment before putting the papers down in a disorganized pile. 

“Good morning, Tommy,” Dream greeted politely, about to get up from the table.

The boy stopped him with a dismissive wave of a hand, before sitting down himself.

”Hello, Dream,” he replied, shifting his attention from the witch to the papers. “What are those?”

The High Priest laughed and leaned back in his seat. “Cutting straight to the chase, I see. I’m sure you’ll like these ones.”

The man grabbed one of the pieces and flipped it over, letting Tommy see the writing on one of the sides. The boy easily recognized it as a curse key, although an unfamiliar one. He raised his eyebrows in a silent question, waiting for an explanation that soon followed.

“I thought we could follow the first lesson with something more… fun. This,” he shook the paper slightly, “is a fire curse. They don’t usually put them in books, but most young witches use those when their mentors don’t see. It only works on objects, like that.”

Dream pulled a small, crudely carved wooden horse out of his cloak pocket and slapped the curse key on it. He pressed a finger to the center of the key in demonstration, and a moment later the horse burst into flames, burning to ash in seconds. The man chuckled in content.

”Haven’t touched those in a while. I played with them all the time when I was a kid,” the witch commented, a hint of nostalgia colouring his voice.

Tommy looked at the pile of gray ash that’d just been a wooden figurine with excitement and a small amount of worry.

“Didn’t your parents tell you not to play with fire?” the boy asked, half-jokingly. 

“I didn’t know my parents, so that knowledge was a mystery to 16 year old me,” Dream answered nonchalantly while taking out small wooden objects of different forms – cubes, toys, blocks.

Tommy opened and closed his mouth a couple of times like a confused fish, before rubbing his neck awkwardly and mumbling a quiet “sorry”. He didn’t like talking about it with strangers in the market that sometimes brought it up for reasons still unclear to him, no matter how good their intentions might have been. So he considered the man’s uncaring attitude a way too familiar signal and dropped the subject as quickly as it came up. Instead the teen reached for the paper and the closest figurine.

He repeated the movements under Dream's watchful gaze, and watched the small fire in his hand lick at his fingertips in delight. It left pleasant tingles all over the skin of his hand, warming the boy's palms and dancing for mere moments before dying down and dissolving. He repeated the curse on a block, then on another horse toy, throwing it in the air as it burned and watching with a smile as sparks flew around it and dissipated, not reaching the earth. As the Head Witch explained, the only way it could harm the magic user was for the sparks to land in their eyes, which was as safe as fire could get. 

Tommy stayed for just a bit longer than he planned to: playing with fire was actually more fun than he thought it to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writer's block, my abhorred... This chapter ate my soul and is still dry as heck, despite being pretty long. I have no idea how words function.
> 
> I still hope you enjoyed reading it though! Have a great day :D


End file.
